Yellow Quill has had a boil water advisory for its drinking water since 1995. We showed that this boil water advisory could not be lifted with the existing water treatment equipment and the existing water source. Water is pumped from Pipestone Creek when it flows in the spring. The creek usually flows for 1-3 weeks. Also, when the creek is flowing is when Kelvington discharges its sewage lagoon water, which also at some point ends up in Pipestone Creek. In the old treatment plant we have a standard filtration unit, which may be fine for a source water that is of better quality, but it is not fine for Pipestone Creek water.

The flow of Pipestone Creek is also not reliable with virtually no flow last year when we had to pump water from the ground to fill the reservoir by the old water treatment plant. This year water from Pipestone Creek was only pumped for 5 days, and then Kelvington announced that it was going to release its sewage and Yellow Quill stopped pumping water into the reservoir. So, this year we will also have to try to fill the reservoir with groundwater.

Yellow Quill has come to symbolize nationally a native community with poor quality water for which new solutions are required. A consultant, Associated Engineering, was hired to try to find new sources of water. Associated Engineering looked at seven different water supplies some as far away as 100 km. In the end it was found that there was a secure source of water within the reserve deep in the ground.

The decision was made that while the quality of the water was poor if properly treated it would become an excellent drinking water. It was, however, realized that the treatment process that could make this happen likely had not been used in Canada before.

Associated Engineering in collaboration with WateResearch Corp. were charged with developing these new water treatment processes. Yellow Quill's Water Project Team who is overseeing the work also requested that processes with lower chemical use were to be pursued. Not only did we need to find out which existing water treatment processes may work, but also develop new ones if required.

Since July 2002 we have been working on-site at Yellow Quill's new wells where we are pumping 200 L per minute into a pilot trailer where we have tested many different water treatment processes. Most processes have not worked or have worked poorly. However, we have learned from the failures and have developed a combination of processes that remove the contaminants without using chemicals. We have worked closely with scientists in Europe and the United States to make this a reality.

These new processes will be installed in the new water treatment plant, but as this plant is the first one of its kind we will work with Yellow Quill's water treatment plant operators to further optimize the processes when the plant is up and running later this summer and fall. This was the first time INAC has supported such an extensive development process.

Yellow Quill will have gone from having Canada's poorest drinking water to having one of its best. It could not have been done without collaboration between the Band, consultants and scientists as well as INAC. We are anticipating interest from across Canada with Yellow Quill standing as an example of what can be done when everybody works together.

By paving the way for new treatment processes it is hoped that other native communities with extremely poor quality ground water will also soon be able to produce high quality drinking water on reserve.

Safe Drinking Water Becoming a Reality at Yellow Quill
by Leila Nashacappo