Statement from Mayor Boddy Reflecting on the Precautionary Boil Water Advisory

Last weekend, our community experienced a precautionary boil water advisory, an event that understandably caused disruption and concern for citizens and businesses across Owen Sound.

Residents can rest assured that accredited labs confirmed water sample results on Wednesday, and that there was no confirmed microbiological contamination.

At times of challenge, the people of Grey and Bruce have always come together to support each other! Now that the advisory has been lifted, I want to take a moment to say thank you to everyone in our great community. Thank you to Bruce Power and Ice River Springs for their generous support in donating bottled water.

A special thank you to many community partners, including Grey County and Supportive Outreach Services (SOS), United Way of Bruce Grey, OSHaRE, Salvation Army, and Canadian Mental Health Association Grey Bruce, for immediately jumping into action to help ensure our most vulnerable residents had access to bottled water, with distribution support from Smith & Hladil Home Hardware Building Centre.  I would also like to recognize and thank the Canadian Coast Guard for their assistance in breaking ice in the Bay to help with source water intake. 

Most of all, thank you to our residents. We saw neighbours checking in on neighbours, people sharing updates, and families taking the necessary steps – boiling water, conserving use, and helping ensure everyone around them stayed safe. One resident shared a message that captured this moment well, thanking the City for its quick action and recognizing that without it, the outcome could have been far worse. Those words mean a great deal to all of us.

I want to reassure our community that our Water Treatment Plant was operating exactly as it should. The precautionary advisory was issued because of high turbidity (or cloudiness) in our intake water source, driven by natural conditions outside of our control. Following direction from Grey Bruce Public Health, the precautionary boil water advisory was issued out of an abundance of caution, with the health and safety of our community as the guiding priority.

This was an evolving situation, and throughout it all, the City shared updates as soon as they became available. That transparency mattered, and I thank residents for their patience and understanding as we worked through each stage.

This experience also put our emergency management training into action. Every year, staff across all City divisions take part in emergency preparedness training so we’re ready to respond when situations beyond our control arise. Plans are built out from those exercises. This was a clear example of that training at work, ensuring departments, partners, and agencies could coordinate quickly and effectively to help protect our community. The City of Owen Sound will continue to review experiences like these and add what we have learned to our preparedness training for future events.

I want to sincerely thank City staff and our Grey Bruce Public Health partners for their diligence, professionalism, and long hours. From monitoring water quality and overseeing communications, to coordinating and distributing bottled water and supporting residents day and night, our residents can rest assured that we have a dedicated, experienced and caring team on the ground, at all times. 

Based on all of the information available at that time, and guided by regulations, our staff and partners took the safest and most appropriate actions that they could, and they did it with care, professionalism, and a strong commitment to this community.

Owen Sound showed resilience, cooperation, and compassion throughout this event. Thank you for looking out for one another, and thank you for your continued trust.

For more information, please email communications@owensound.ca

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