Do Not Drink the Water!

Is that Champagne? No, it's tap water.

From today's Vancouver Sun: (I chose the font colour to match the water.)

Boil-water Advisory Issued for the Lower Mainland

Health authorities ordered a boil-water advisory today for the entire Lower Mainland, saying torrential rains have stirred up so much sediment in Greater Vancouver’s reservoirs that tap water may be unsafe to drink.

The turbidity level -- the amount of sediment in the water -- “is the worst they’ve seen, ever,” said Vancouver Health Authority spokeswoman Viviana Zanocco.

The boil-water advisory means “you should not use your tap water for consumption, for brushing your teeth or for washing fruits and vegetables,” Zanocco said.

Residents can either use bottled water for those purposes, or boil tap water for at least a minute and then let it cool completely.

The problem is that coliform and other bacteria that may be present in the reservoirs are covered with sediment particles, possibly protecting them from the chlorine that normally kills them.

Um... Jason brushed his teeth this morning with tap water, and then I washed some vegetables for his pizza at lunchtime. oops. How were we supposed to know?

I guess the gross water in our toilet was a big hint. (I didn't take a picture of that because it's quite unpleasant.)

BC has the worst water in Canada.

Another big hint was the wind that whipped the trees around all day yesterday, and turned Jason's umbrella inside-out during his walk home from school. There were sustained winds of 100 km/h.

A lot of people don't have power, some people had to evacuate their homes because of flooding, and in a West End townhouse complex, a tree fell on the roof.

BC Hydro says this was the worst storm in two years.

And Jason says he loves storms...

UPDATE: The wind whipped its way through Grande Prairie, AB (where Jason's parents got snowed in), through Okotoks, AB (where the wind toppled semi trucks on the highway), and over the Rockies (?) to Vancouver, BC.