A new study conducted by the local health unit has discovered that 2.9 per cent of private rural well water samples in the area tested positive for E. coli from 2011 to 2015.
The study also found that 19% of the samples tested positive for bacterial contamination during the same five-year period.
“These numbers are kind of about what we expected to see, but that doesn’t mean they’re good,” said Shawn Zentner, manager of health protection for Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health.
While private well test results have always been available to public health this is the first time a comprehensive analysis of the data has been completed, Zentner explained.
“It kind of came out of a health equity meeting we had where we were wondering about how do we service our clients and we don’t have a whole lot of places where you can return water sample bottles other than the health units and so we thought, ‘Well let’s look at the data,’” he said.
The health unit encourages private well owners to have their house’s water tested three times a year.
“It’s important for people to sample at some sort of regular frequency,” Zentner said.
“The gist behind that is spring, summer and fall and then in the winter time because … it’s basically frozen then there isn’t much that can leak down through the ground to get to your water.”
The report, submitted to the board of health on April 5, found that less than 25% of rural private wells sampled in Wellington, Dufferin and Guelph were tested three times a year from 2011 to 2015.
In Mapleton that figure is 10 to 15%; in Minto, Guelph-Eramosa and Puslinch 15 to 20%; and in Wellington North, Centre Wellington and Erin 20 to 25%.
The public health study also found that less that 20% of the total wells in the area were sampled at least once in 2015 (10 to 12% in Puslinch, 12 to 15% in Erin, and 15 to 20% in Minto, Wellington North, Mapleton, Centre Wellington and Guelph-Eramosa).
“It’s only if you sample the water that we’re going to sample the result and we’re going to find out,” Zentner said. “So there’s a whole bunch of people who don’t sample at all … they’re not in this data set at all.”
To make the process easier, well owners can now pick up kits and drop off samples at Mount Forest Louise Marshall Hospital in Mount Forest and Palmerston and District Hospital in Palmerston, in addition to public health locations in Aboyne, Orangeville and Guelph.
If a test does show the presence of E. coli or bacterial contamination, Zentner said health inspectors will call the well owner up to four days before they are likely to receive the results from the provincial lab.
“It allows us to give them some information on the phone that might help them to … have a better sample result the next time,” he said.
“I would call it a more proactive step where if they actually meet a criteria that we think makes the (water) especially unsafe, then we’re going to reach out to them and call them whether they want us to or not.
“They don’t have to listen to us but we’ll call.”
If a well does receive a positive test for contamination Zentner said options include adding a treatment device or looking at the physical structure of the well.
“We’re trying to raise awareness so that people sample more often and we’re trying to get people to realize that their wells get contaminated and some of the things that they might do on their own property or the condition of their well might be the reason why their water is bad,” he said.
The report states the local health unit is continuing its study and will be analyzing data from 2005 to 2015 to look for patterns and develop programs to increase the number of area well water samples submitted.
