Water advisory expected to be lifted.
PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY – People in the Picton and Bloomfield areas might be able to drink water from their taps as early as today (Thursday) as tests continue to show no contamination of the drinking water system following the sinking of a barge in Picton Bay on March 24.
At Wednesday morning’s daily press conference of the municipality’s Emergency Control Group, acting mayor Barry Turpin said the boil-water advisory could soon be lifted.
“Although the plant has been restarted, it is not yet reconnected to the Picton-Bloomfield distribution water system (and) we are in discussions with the Ministry of the Environment over our plans to reconnect the distribution system to the plant,” he said.
“Until we receive the Ministry of Environment’s acceptance, we cannot reconnect the plant to the distribution system, (but) we anticipate their acceptance by end of day and water will be directed to the distribution system soon thereafter.
This means that the boil-water advisory, while still in effect, could be lifted sometime tomorrow.” Turpin said he expects a Thursday afternoon press conference scheduled for 3 p.m. will signal the end of the boil-water advisory.
“We’ve had no indication of anything being stirred up and we have better turbidity measurements today which is an indication of suspended matter in the water,” he said.
“The bay is turned over and flushing itself seasonably as it does and we have no indication of anything in the water aside from the release from the barge.” CAO James Hepburn said the arduous task of sifting through the financial aspects of the disaster will start soon and will likely include court action.
“I will be meeting with our lawyers later today to discuss (the process) and, obviously, we will be making claims against various people responsible for this,” he said.
“We also have to determine if we will be applying for emergency funding through the provincial government or not.”