Guidance for Issuing and Rescinding Boil Water Advisories – Health Canada Consultation
Consultation period ends June 16, 2014: Draft Guidance Document
The Federal-Provincial-Territorial Committee on Drinking Water (CDW) has assessed the available information on issuing and rescinding boil water advisories for drinking water supplies with the intent of establishing a drinking water guidance document. The purpose of this consultation is to solicit comments on this guidance document.
The existing guidance on issuing and rescinding boil water advisories was last updated in 2009. This proposed document updates the existing guidance, with an emphasis on effective response and the role of the incident response team. It defines the concepts of emergency and precautionary advisories and the situations that could lead to their issuance; details the elements of a BWA notice; notes the risks to be considered when issuing a BWA (e.g., message fatigue); and includes information on BWA trends in Canada.
The CDW has requested that this document be made available to the public and open for comment. Comments are appreciated, with accompanying rationale, where required. Comments can be sent to the CDW Secretariat via email at water_eau@hc-sc.gc.ca. If this is not feasible, comments may be sent by mail to the CDW Secretariat, Water and Air Quality Bureau, Health Canada, 3rd Floor, 269 Laurier Avenue West, A.L. 4903D, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0K9. All comments must be received before June 16, 2014.
Comments received as part of this consultation will be shared with the appropriate CDW member, along with the name and affiliation of their author. Authors that do not want their name and affiliation shared with their CDW member should provide a statement to this effect along with their comments.
It should be noted that this guidance document on issuing and rescinding boil water advisories for drinking water supplies will be revised following evaluation of comments received, and the final guidance document will be posted. This document should be considered as a draft for comment only.