While the Town of Ladysmith has lifted the Boil Water Advisory, staff is providing the public with more information as to why it was declared in the first place.
At approximately 6:30 pm last Thursday the advisory was issued and CAO Guillermo Ferrero said the ‘Chicken Ladder’ system was left open, releasing untested water into the reservoir system.
“The bottom line is we opened the wrong tap and in Ladysmith, we have two water systems, one that we usually use in the wintertime and one that we usually use in the summertime,” said Ferrero.
The Chicken Ladder valve is an intake pipe along Holland Creek and it was left open, resulting in untested water contaminating the reservoir.
Ferrero said this type of advisory is quite rare and town staff is working to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
“For us, it’s really rare to have a boil water advisory and this clearly was a human error and we’re reviewing our policies internally to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” said Ferrero.
The boil water advisory affected Ladysmith, Diamond Improvement District, and Stz’uminus First Nation residents.
According to Island Health, a Boil Water Advisory isn’t as serious as a Boil Water Notice or the very rare Do Not Use Water Notice.
The Town of Ladysmith sincerely thanks residents who informed them of the advisory.
