Testing and Analysis Program Sample Clauses

Testing and Analysis Program. Municipalities must monitor the quality of drinking water they supply to residents and make the results of their analyses available to the public. In Nunavik, the Renewable Resources Department of the KRG manages the drinking water monitoring program and provides assistance to the municipalities in this regard. Briefly, the drinking water monitoring program works as described below. The KRG Environment Technician orders the water sampling bottles from the laboratories of the Quebec Ministry of Environment and supplies northern villages according to requests received from their managers. Water samples are taken on a weekly basis by the water-truck drivers at the following locations: • at the source or the point where the water leaves the plant, as the case may be; • from a randomly selected water-truck; • from a randomly selected residential reservoir. Two institutions serve the two coasts of Nunavik: municipalities from the Xxxxxx coast (Kuujjuarapik to Ivujivik) send their samples to the hospital in Val d’Or, while municipalities from the Ungava coast (Salluit to Kangiqsualujjuaq) send theirs to the Ungava Tulattavik Health Center in Kuujjuaq. A maximum delay of 48 hours is allowed between the time the samples are taken and the beginning of the analysis. Samples received after this deadline are rejected in accordance with current regulations. Results are forwarded to the KRG Environment Technician, who then faxes them to municipal managers along with detailed instructions on measures to be taken: posting public notices to boil or suspending such notices, disinfecting water trucks or residential tanks, and so on. The drinking water monitoring program has many irritants, several of which flow from current regulations that do not take into account the reality of the North. For instance, weather conditions and transport constraints are such that, too often, water samples cannot reach the lab within the prescribed 48 hours. As a result, the samples are rejected and a notice to boil water before drinking is issued. The notice to boil will be lifted only if the next shipment of samples reaches the lab in time and is found to be free of bacterial contamination as described in the regulations. Therefore, a notice to boil water will usually stay in effect a full week. From the moment the samples are taken, it takes five to seven days to obtain the results. In northern villages, water samples are taken once a week, as opposed to once a day or more often in their sou...