Printed Oct 04, 2023 • Final up to date Oct 05, 2023 • 3 minute learn
A nicely water pattern drop off website has been reinstated in Saugeen Shores – a part of a brand new domestically developed service that can guarantee all Gray-Bruce residents have equitable, well timed entry to Public Well being Ontario’s free nicely water testing program.
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A domestically developed service that can guarantee all Gray-Bruce residents – together with these in Saugeen Shores – have equitable, well timed entry to Public Well being Ontario’s free nicely water testing program was launched by Gray Bruce Well being Companies Oct. 4.
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The brand new service, developed in collaboration with space municipalities, will enable residents on non-public consuming water techniques to select up pattern assortment kits and drop off water samples at 14 places all through Gray-Bruce.
The places will type two routes, which shall be serviced at some point every week by a neighborhood courier contracted by Gray Bruce Public Well being. A Bruce County route shall be serviced on Wednesdays, whereas a Gray County route shall be serviced on Fridays.
A Public Well being Ontario courier will proceed to select up samples at each GBPH in Owen Sound and in Walkerton 5 days every week. On Wednesdays and Fridays, the PHO courier can even take samples collected by the native courier to a London lab for testing.
Gray-Bruce Medical Officer of Well being Dr. Ian Arra stated the made-in-Gray-Bruce service will put PHO’s complimentary nicely water testing program inside a 30-minute drive of practically each family in Gray-Bruce.
“We would like to sincerely thank each of our partners, particularly local municipalities, for assisting us in creating a fair and accessible service that adheres to our collective mission of protecting the health of everyone in Grey-Bruce,” Dr. Arra stated in an Oct. 2 information launch.
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GBPH’s aim was to take care of water pattern drop-off places in current communities, whereas re-establishing places in place earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic- that included restoring a website in Saugeen Shores.
With the native service, there are actually drop-off places in additional Gray-Bruce communities than had been in place earlier than the pandemic. New places have been established in Chatsworth, The Blue Mountains, Southgate, and Chesley.
Particulars of the brand new routes – together with a listing of drop-off places and data on when residents should accumulate and drop off samples to make sure they adhere to required timelines for testing – can be found on the following hyperlink: Nicely Water Testing Service.
Public Well being Ontario’s non-public consuming water testing program analyzes samples for the presence of bacterial indicators of contamination, particularly E. coli and complete coliforms. Residents obtain check outcomes instantly from PHO.
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GBPH recommends households that draw their consuming water from wells or different non-public techniques check their water at the least 3 times a yr, after any work is finished to their system, and after important climate occasions, reminiscent of a quick thaw or extreme rain.
GBPH has lengthy collaborated with PHO and different companions to make the nicely water testing program out there freed from cost to Gray-Bruce residents. Key to this system’s success in Gray-Bruce – because of the area’s dimension and rural nature – is having a number of places the place individuals can drop off water samples.
Within the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, coverage adjustments by Gray-Bruce hospitals resulted in a discount within the variety of out there pick-up/drop-off places in Gray-Bruce. A number of grocery shops, which had been deemed important companies, stepped as much as function momentary places.
Following the COVID-19 emergency, GBPH started discussions with PHO in hopes of not solely re-establishing everlasting places however growing the variety of places to make sure all Gray-Bruce residents had equitable entry to this system. Nonetheless, PHO knowledgeable GBPH that it didn’t intend to extend the variety of places and was contemplating eliminating most native drop-off websites.
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