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Boil Water Advisory Update

Sioux Lookout, ON – A boil water advisory was issued late yesterday afternoon after a contractor, working on private property, inadvertently struck a watermain and caused a break.

Initially, the affected area was limited to areas north of Fair Street, including Meadwell Drive, Curtis Street, Second Avenue, Centennial Drive, Cedar Crescent, Atwood Street, Third Avenue, and the Sioux Lookout Municipal Airport. Shortly after, the boil water advisory was updated to include all areas north of the CN Rail tracks, including the airport.

Our Public Works staff worked well into the night to isolate and complete repairs on the affected watermain. Now that the repairs have been completed, we will continue with the steps prescribed by the Ontario Drinking Water Quality Standards (ODWQS). These state that the Health Unit will continue the boil water advisory until the standards outlined in the ODWQS are no longer exceeded in two consecutive sets of samples taken from all parts of the affected distribution system.

While there were no indications that the standards were exceeded during the incident, the process must be followed to ensure the absolute safety of the drinking water system.

Samples are being taken and submitted today for testing, and another set of samples will be taken and sent for testing again tomorrow. We are hopeful that both sets of samples will meet the ODWQS standards and allow the boil water advisory to be lifted by the weekend.

As this was the result of a contractor error on private property, they will be absorbing all costs related to the repairs. There will be no additional costs to the Municipality due to this incident.

The Municipality of Sioux Lookout will post updates when they are available on our website and social media channels:

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For more information, please contact:
Brian P. MacKinnon, CAO/Municipal Clerk
807-738-2170 or [email protected]

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