July 23, 2002
Kamloops Daily News



"I wouldn't wish what we experienced on anyone," said Jim
Toye, commissioner for the city of North Battleford,
Saskatchewan.  He's talking about the infection of
cryptosporidium that hit his city in the Spring of 2001.

Thousands of citizens of North Battleford got sick and three
died of complications of cryptosporidiosis.  When I spoke to
him on the phone, Toye found it surprising that Kamloopsians
drink water that is 10 times as murky as in North
Battleford.  And that's our water at its cleanest.

Murkiness, or turbidity, is the amount of mud, crud and bugs
in our water. It's measured in NTUs  (Nephelometric
Turbidity Units).  What  passes as drinkable water in
Kamloops the citizens of North Battleford would consider
alarming.

The turbidity in Kamloops water is now between 1 and 5 NTU. 
The normal turbidity in North Battleford is less than
one-tenth that and when it reaches 0.3 NTU, they shut down
the treatment plant and identify the problem.

"Levels over 0.3 NTU are time bomb," says Toye.  He knows
from first hand experience.  He and his family were infected
but came out of it relatively unscathed.   Those unfortunate
enough to have cancer, or to have organ or bone marrow
transplants, or a suppressed immune system were not so lucky
to get away with just a few days sick at home.

Cryptosporidiosis is spread in water containing spores,
called oocysts.  They are tough in water.  Not much kills
them, certainly not the chlorine added to Kamloops' water.  

But once they get into the intestines of many mammals,
including humans, they set up house and begin to rapidly
multiply.   The human host obligingly distribute the
offspring of cryptosporidium through diarrhea.  In daycare
centers and homes for the elderly, the oocysts are spread
easily unless meticulous personal cleanliness and hygiene is
adhered to.

In Medicine Hat, an outbreak was traced to a swimming pool.
In the summer of 1996, cryptosporidium made about 2,000
people sick in Cranbrook.  Weeks later, an outbreak hit
Kelowna, where more than 10,000 people got sick.

Even before the outbreak in North Battleford, their water
treatment plant was better than ours.  In Kamloops, the
addition of  chlorine is the extent of  our water treatment. 
In North Battleford solids are removed, chorine is added,
and the PH is adjusted, and the water is finally
sand-filtered.  After the outbreak, ultra violet radiation
was added to kill cryptosporidium and other bugs.

Kamloops' water has cryptosporidium spores and, so far, we
have been lucky that only a few dozen Kamloopsians become
sick from it each year.   But it's only a matter of time
until a major outbreak occurs here unless we do something
about it.  

This is not fear-mongering, it is a statistical probability.  
If you are exposed to a parasite in sufficient quantities,
you will get sick.  The exact number required for an
infection are not known.   

 The same oocysts that infects humans also infects many herd
animals (cows, goats, sheep among domesticated animals, and
deer and elk among wild animals).  Spring runoff  spreads
the spores.

Exposure to it does not build immunity.  Unlike viruses, the
oocyst is a single-celled animal, a protozoa, a parasite.

Kamloopsians are whistling in the dark if they think that we
can get away with doing nothing in the face of such a clear
threat to health.  Yet it's human nature to think that
because nothing bad has happened yet, that nothing will.

"Canadians take safe water for granted," Toye tells me.  
When I tell him that it will cost Kamloopsians about $10 a
month more for a water, he replies "set your priorities."

Beyond the immediate damage to the health of citizens of
North Battleford, there was lasting damage to their psyche.  
They were betrayed by what they considered their birthright
- - clean and abundant water.

That's when the recriminations began. Lawsuits were launched
against the city.  Negative national media focused on the
terrible infection.  No one wanted to move there or invest
in business.  Tourism was zero.

Hindsight is 20/20 but foresight requires the ability to put
health before politics.  "Do we want to build a water
treatment plant to remove infectious agents?" is a good
question.  A better one is "are we willing risk the lives of
Kamloops' most  vulnerable citizens though our own
procrastination?"

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