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Despite growing public concern about radioactive material in the Ottawa River, the city reiterated today its drinking water is safe.
Ottawa’s director of water and wastewater services, Dixon Weir, sent a memo to councillors this morning explaining Ottawa’s drinking water, which comes from the Ottawa River, meets or exceeds “all federal guidelines and provincial standards for radiological parameters.”
In recent months there has been much attention paid to the quality of river water after Sun Media published reports of leaks from the Chalk River nuclear reactor into the river.
Weir said natural radionuclides appear in water and that the contribution drinking water makes to a person’s total radiation exposure is small. He said that exposure is largely due to the naturally occurring radionuclides.
“However, the presence of nuclear power facilities or other nuclear industries within the watershed area means that there is the potential for release of artificial radionuclides as well,” he said. “There is potential for tritium releases resulting from operations at the Chalk River nuclear facility located upstream near Deep River, Ontario.
“Tritium is a contaminant that cannot be removed through the drinking water treatment process. For these reasons, the City of Ottawa conducts extensive monitoring of river and treated water samples to ensure the safety of the drinking water supply.”
Copyright 2009 SUN MEDIA