County of Lethbridge

The objectives of the Environmental Health Department are:

1. Provide a safe, clean and constant water supply for all treated water systems in Lethbridge County.
2. Provide safe and constant wastewater collection and treatment systems for communities which have such facilities.
3. Support and assist all local Water Co-op's to provide safe, clean and constant water supplies for treated systems and to provide constant water supplies for all raw water systems.
4. Monitor other waste, wastewater and solid waste in the County with the assistance of the Local Health Unit and Alberta Environmental Protection.
5. Environmental Health provides the above services under the direction of Council and Provincial Legislation (All of the above attempt to protect the Public Health).
6. Monitor and assist all new developments in Lethbridge County.
7. Monitor raw water courses which supply water to each Hamlet and Subdivision.

The objectives of the Environmental Health Department are accomplished by the following summary of tasks:

1. Daily water testing, monitoring and inspections of the systems.
2. Regular daily maintenance and repairs.
3. Current and long range planning and budgeting for major upgrading and future system requirements.
4. System management and regular system operation.
5. Dealing with emergencies promptly and efficiently.
6. Improving efficiency of systems and system operation (Optimizing facilities).
7. Responding to the concerns of residents.
8. All water sheds and water courses will be monitored regularly for possible contamination.
9. Monitoring and managing raw water sources by:
   • using the best quality of raw water available
   • attempting to control vegetation and algae in raw water storage reservoirs
   • monitoring and continually inspecting the water source upstream
10. Water and Wastewater Systems are licensed by Alberta Environmental Protection, Standards and Approvals Division, Licenses to Operate. The licenses have conditions and requirements attached to meet the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality, the Clear Water Act and Provincial Regulations.

License requirements include monitoring of:

1. Daily flows of treated water.
2. Daily treated water "free chlorine" residual measurements.
3. Daily treated water "total chlorine" residual measurements.
4. Daily pH measurements.
5. Daily turbidity measurements.
6. Weekly summary of the total amount of disinfecting agent added to the water.
7. Weekly summary of any other approved chemical which is added to the water.
8. Summary of any operational difficulties.
9. Take and submit to the Provincial Lab weekly bacteriological samples.
10. Monthly and Yearly reports of the above information.

Environmental Health operates and/or assists in the operation of:

Environmental Health also contracts Solid Waste Collection:

Waste Collection for the Hamlets of Monarch, Diamond City, Shaughnessy and the Subdivision of Fairview are provided by the Town of Coalhurst.

Optimizing and Emergency Planning:

• We are looking into the future to develop emergency plans and optimize facilities.
• We must develop emergency plans for providing a safe, clean and constant water supply
• We must continually monitor the water sheds or raw water supply systems (to know how to treat the raw water when it is received or pass it by for better water).
• We must monitor all water sheds to protect the public downstream mainly because of a continually increasing contamination potential.
• Because of the evidence of surface water contamination, all water treatment must be monitored more closely and all treatment plants must be used at their optimum performance.
• The future will also see the establishment of large regional treated water systems.
• We must have co-operation to ensure development does not interfere or contribute to problems of surface and ground water contamination.