Winnipeg's Water Catastrophe - Part 2

I hauled out my old microscope to take a look at what made up the goo strained out of my City of Winnipeg water last week. I really only expected to see clay particles as that's what the sludge looked like. But to my surprise, the sludge was made up entirely of fibrous particles looking almost exactly like asbestos. Not that I think it's asbestos, but it is definitely made up of fibrous strands. I asked my biologist friend if she had any idea what these strands could be - I thought it might be algae. She told me she'd never seen anything like it (sort of the same line a mechanic gives you) but it did not look like algae. She thought algae would be segmented.

So I took the water filter "strainings" to a couple of labs for analysis. The first lab, "Northwest Laboratories" at the University of Manitoba told me they wouldn't test it but it looked like algae. I scoffed at them and asked if they knew where I might take it for testing. I was told that they had no idea but it wouldn't be cheap. Well, if they had no idea, how did they know it wouldn't be cheap?

I then took the sample to the City laboratory. The technician there was really helpful. He also suspected that the sludge was algae. This was because he knew for a fact that algae levels had recently skyrocketed in the Winnipeg water system. I asked if this wasn't a rather odd time of year for this to happen and he replied, "Yes. It's not normal at this time of year." He went on to explain that because of cryptosporidium in the main reservoir, the City had closed that reservoir and opened a stagnant one which caused a rush of algae through the system. When I asked whether he thought the City would go through with building the new water treatment plant, he assured me that the City was in need of the plant and that it would be built.

So there you have it. Even though I'm not convinced that the sludge was algae, at least it's possible it was. At the very least, the use of a stagnant reservoir was most likely the cause of whatever it was that clogged my filter. After watching my new, clean filter for over a week, I've seen no sign of a build-up and have not noticed any lowering of the water pressure in my house. A final note, there is still cryptosporidium in our water supply and even though the Provincial "expert" always quoted in the Winnipeg Free Press (you know her name - she's a "doctor" with initials M. F.) says not to worry, worry. Or at least boil. If you're healthy (and how many of us in Winnipeg can say that anymore - see Bacteria - The Silent Killers), you won't die. You'll only crap your pants a lot.

Read further on cryptospridium and giardia:

http://www.purewater4u.com/freeinfo/cysts.htm
http://www.camp.ca/aerobiology/giardia.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/crypto/cryptos.htm
http://www.city.winnipeg.mb.ca/interhom/pdf/WaterWorks/crypto.pdf

Thanks to everyone who helped me communicate to Videon (@Home) how lousy the server is that my site resides on. As of December 16 it seems to be working properly. I have my fingers crossed. If it seems slow or times out for you, please send an e-mail to their customer service on my behalf. Just mention that you've had trouble loading this site and would appreciate if something could be done about it. Hopefully it will continue working properly. Thanks again!

Wanna see stars? Check out the Sky View Cafe!

As always, send me your suggestions for future columns on crang.com. See you next week when we'll meet The Backyard Biologist.

© December 16, 2000