(Iqaluit) Municipal authorities in Iqaluit confirm Friday that traces of fuel have been detected in the water supply of the capital of Nunavut.
Posted at 2:42 p.m.
The city says an initial review of scans at its real-time monitoring station indicates fuel got into the water on Monday and Wednesday.
Officials say there have been no readings that exceed alert thresholds, but the city is proactively opening the distribution valves to purge the system.
The city had already confirmed Friday morning that it was investigating after receiving complaints from residents who still reported gasoline odors in tap water.
Residents of this town of 8,000 people were unable to drink tap water for nearly two months last fall after fuel was found in drinking water in October.
This order was lifted on December 10. The City had installed two real-time water monitoring systems in its treatment plant. However, dozens of residents complained this week on social networks that the tap water smelled of fuel again.
In a press release, the municipal administration indicated on Friday that it believes that there may have been hydrocarbons that had ended up in the water supply.
The City is asking citizens to remove the aerators from their faucets and run the water for 20 minutes before 6 p.m. Friday, in order to purge the network. The City is also asking residents to report fuel odors so that City employees can take samples.
The city says employees can’t enter homes to test tap water due to the pandemic lockdown in Nunavut. The samples will therefore be taken as close as possible to the reports.