Alberta Health Services wants county residents to test their private wells for arsenic.
Alberta Health Services (AHS) put out an announcement last week recommending that private well owners who live east of Rural Road 30, south of Township Road 544, west of Rural Road 250 and north of Township Road 502 send them a water sample in the next few months to test their wells for arsenic and manganese.
This region covers Parkland, Leduc and Sturgeon County. In Sturgeon, the affected area covers everything south of Township Road 544, including Villeneuve, Glory Hills and the region around the Sturgeon Valley Golf and Country Club.
AHS Edmonton zone medical officer Christopher Sikora said his department has noticed elevated levels of arsenic and manganese in some private wells in this region as part of its routine monitoring.
If you live outside this area, or you have a cistern, or you get a water bill, your water is fine, he added.
Arsenic levels in some wells were at about twice the maximum acceptable levels in groundwater (0.02 milligrams per litre compared to a limit of 0.01), Sikora said. Manganese levels in some tests were about 50 times over provincial limits (0.5 to 0.9 mg/L compared to a limit of about 0.05).
Long-term exposure to arsenic at levels above recommended guidelines is linked to an increased risk of lung, liver and bladder cancer. High levels of manganese exposure (typically only experienced by welders who inhale it on the job) can lead to neurological disorders.
“The levels that we’re seeing don’t have immediate cause for concern,” Sikora emphasized.
The arsenic in these wells would only affect you if you drank it for 75 years or so, he explained. As for the manganese, water with this amount of it would smell bad, taste bad, look grey and cause stains on your clothes.
“It would look bad and normally individuals wouldn’t use it for consumption.”
Talks with Alberta Environment suggest that these heavy metals are naturally occurring, Sikora said.
AHS is offering private well owners in this region a free water test to see if their wells have arsenic and/or manganese issues, Sikora said. Affected owners will then be advised on how to make their well water safe to drink – a filtration system often works.
About 7,500 homeowners will get notices in the mail this month about the free tests, Sikora said. Private well owners in this area can arrange for a test by calling 780-342-1330.
Well owners should test their wells every three to five years for heavy metals, Sikora said.
A map on the Sturgeon County website suggests that there are about 200 privately owned wells in the county that would qualify for the free test.
Groundwater quality in Sturgeon County generally isn’t that great, with much of it having high levels of sodium, said Wayne Groot, a potato farmer near Gibbons who has a private well. Many residents use cisterns as a result.
“The water we have for drinking is quite hard,” he said, with previous tests suggesting it has elevated nitrate levels.
“I don’t think it’s affected my health yet.”
Even though he’s not in the affected area, Groot said AHS’s notice had got him thinking about getting his well re-tested – the last time he checked it was 12 years ago.
