Fuel in Iqaluit water not dangerous short term, but ‘very risky’ moving forward, says expert
Global News
A local state of emergency for the city of about 8,000 people was declared after more than a week of residents complaining on social media about a fuel smell in their tap water.
A University of Saskatchewan professor who has worked in Iqaluit says any amount of fuel in drinking water is unsafe, but drinking it over the short term isn’t necessarily dangerous.
Iqaluit residents were told not to drink the city’s tap water Tuesday after a fuel smell was detected at the water treatment plant, but it’s still unknown whether there is fuel in the water.
Steven Siciliano, a microbiologist and toxicologist who has done research in the north, says the city did the right thing by telling its residents as soon as it found the smell.
A local state of emergency for the city of about 8,000 people was declared after more than a week of residents complaining on social media about a fuel smell in their tap water.
Siciliano says Iqaluit’s regular water testing looks for bacteria, not hydrocarbons, and notes the city shouldn’t be blamed for the situation.
Water samples from Iqaluit have been sent to a lab in Southern Canada for testing and are expected back in the coming days.
Siciliano says the human nose is “incredibly sensitive” to hydrocarbons, meaning people can smell it even if there’s a very low amount.
He says long-term exposure to compounds found in gasoline could be “very risky” but drinking it for a week or so probably isn’t going to do much harm.
