The town of Smithers has issued a water quality advisory for elevated levels of manganese in the drinking supply.

Director of Operations at the Town of Smithers, Chris Lawrence said the advisory will be in place until the levels are brought back into accordance with the Canadian safe drinking guidelines.

“The advisory was issued due to the levels of manganese in the Smithers community water system,” Lawrence said.

“Health Canada regulates water quality parameters through the Canadian Drinking Water Guideline and the guideline sets a maximum acceptable concentration for manganese, and other parameters as well, but for manganese it sets those parameters in drinking water of 0.12 milligrams per litre and the Smithers dirking waters system has recorded levels of 0.18 milligrams per litre.”

Although the drinking water is still cleared for consumption, even with the heightened levels of manganese, people feeding their infants formula mixed with the water should seek another source of water for formula fed infants.

The advisory will remain in place until the levels of manganese are back within Health Canada guidelines.

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