Hundreds of thousands could have received the boil water advisory a lot sooner Monday evening, if Halifax Water had known they could send a provincial alert.
A huge portion of HRM was affected after a power outage at the J.D. Kline Pockwock treatment facility had untreated water get into the system.
This prompted what is believed to be the largest boil water advisory in the history of the utility, according to Communications Manager for Halifax Water, Jeff Myrick.
Two hundred thousand customers were affected in parts of Halifax as well as places like Hammonds Plains, Fall River, Bedford, Sackville, Beaverbank and Spryfield.
Those who signed up for the hfxALERT received a warning first, but the rest had to wait another two and a half hours.
Myrick says they’ve always had their own way of communicating by sending word to the media, using social media and then having the municipality repost everything to get the message out further.
They thought they had solid coverage and never thought using the provincial system was an option to them, until the municipality let them know.
“The Halifax alert went out around 6:20 p.m. and it was around 7:30 p.m. that we were made aware that was available to us as well. We certainly wanted to take advantage to amplify the message even more.”
He adds, the utility really appreciates having the option to send an alert provincially but is taking ownership of the delay in getting the word out.
It was their first go at using the system and it took time.
Myrick says not only is it a bit of a learning curve, but they are aware that it is alarming for people to receive the alert.
They also needed to make sure it got “to the point” when going over cell phones and it took them awhile to get it approved not only internally, but provincially as well.
The second alert sent out Wednesday when the advisory was lifted, was much more efficient and was received within minutes.
Myrick says using an emergency alert is not something they want to take advantage of but when it comes to public health, it’s a “great thing”.
What happened
An investigation into what caused the power outage is underway and the full report will be presented to the Utility and Review Board, likely in a couple of months.
For now, Myrick says the odds of it happening again are “zero”.
“Two backup generators and neither come on…it’s such an anomaly. So, we are trying to figure out why it happened, but I can guarantee you it won’t be happening again in any scenario similar to what happened on Monday.”
Myrick has a message for their customers and small businesses who really took a hit.
“It’s something we didn’t anticipate and certainly wouldn’t want for our customers in any way and apologize for that and thank them for their patience.”
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