5. Tragedy in Walkerton
Publication Date: June 5, 2000
Summary: Judi Doerr was on the brink of tears. "I'm just so tired, so frustrated," she said, her voice quavering. Doerr and her two children, Matt, 10, and Bayley, 7, were among the 5,000 residents of Walkerton, Ont., who had to cope last week with the shocking news that their town's water supply was contaminated by a deadly strain of E. coli bacteria. By week's end, the outbreak in the picturesque farming community 150 km northwest of Toronto had killed five, put dozens in the hospital and stricken more than 1,000 with nausea, severe cramps and bloody diarrhea. But Doerr said that if she and her family have remained healthy so far, it's thanks mainly to good luck. She learned from a friend who works at a local nursing home, where several elderly residents became ill, of rumours circulating about the town's water supply. As a result, Doerr began boiling her family's tap water on May 20 -- a full day before Dr. Murray McQuigge, the medical officer of health for the Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound Health Unit, issued his boil-water warning. "With two kids and two big dogs," she recounted, "as soon as I finished boiling one big pot, I had to start the next."
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6. Worries over Water
Publication Date: June 5, 2000
Summary: Drinking water in Canada is supposed to be safe. That is an assumption millions of Canadians make every day when they brush their teeth, shower or grab a refreshing glassful. But as the deaths in Walkerton, Ont., last week showed, water can easily turn deadly. For city dwellers, it is reassuring to know their water is tested several times a day. But many rural inhabitants across the country draw on untreated groundwater, content with the knowledge that what was good enough for their grandfathers is good enough for them. "Many people we've talked to have never had their water checked," says Brad Fairley, manager of the water-quality unit in Regina for Agriculture Canada's Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration. "They have no idea what's in it."
Maclean's on line