Town officials want to take a closer look at the Sheep River to find out what is causing occasional elevated levels of E coli in the water.
Operations manager Dave Robertson said there have historically been periods of high E coli in the river, particularly during spring run off.
“It periodically spikes, there’s different operations up stream of the Town of Okotoks,” he said. “When we get these high E coli (levels) it could just be sources coming off the land, snow melt or agriculture operations.”
After spring runoff, Robertson said levels average between 80 Heterotropic Plate Count (HPC) to 140 HPC. He said a reading of 200 HPC at a public beach would cause concern among health authorities.
However, Robertson said there are times where levels spike above this point in the Sheep River.
He’s uncertain where the E coli is coming from. Levels are higher upstream of Okotoks than they are downstream.
One thing he is sure of is that it’s not coming from wastewater plants in the region. If this were the case there would be a corresponding level of chlorine resulting from the treatment process.
“Based on the chloride in the water coming into town, they didn’t see elevated levels of chloride which means it’s not human,” he said.
Robertson said it’s more of an issue during times of the year when water levels are lower or not moving swiftly.
While it’s not a serious concern, he said parents should be cognizant of it when taking their kids to the river in the summer, particularly when wading in standing water or shallow pools.
“It may seem like the perfect place for children to play, but at the same time if it’s a standing pond and there isn’t a lot of water running through it’s probably not all that healthy,” said Robertson.
He said the Town needs a better understanding of what is causing the E coli. He said it’s critical the Town has a better understanding of activities going on in the Sheep River basin because it’s near the end of the watershed area.
“We need to understand what’s going on upstream of us, who has what operations and what potential contamination is coming down,” said Robertson.
He said it ties in to the 2008 flood that brought an unprecedented amount of silt down the river that the town’s water treatment plant could not handle. THE INCREASE IN E COLI NOW IS TIED TO THE FLOOD IN 2008??
The Town had never seen similar silt levels in the past and is still unsure of what caused it. CAUSED WHAT THE SILT OR THE E COLI??
