By Alex McCuaig

Offences between 2014 and late 2017

Bow Island fined, employee given house arrest over drinking water testing

Aug 11, 2020 | 3:28 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – A former Bow Island employee will be serving a six-month community sentence while the town itself is facing a $10,000 fine after guilty pleas were entered Tuesday in connection with incomplete water testing in the municipality and not reporting infrastructure malfunctions within the system.

Ryan Jeffery Sanderson, 47, and the Town of Bow Island were both charged under the provincial legislation in connection with the municipality’s drinking water distribution system in June for offences between 2014 and late 2017.

Environmental charges were laid in June 2020.

The court heard there were multiple drinking water test results which were either missing or appeared copied from previous years between the offence dates, including dozens of chlorine samples required to be taken each workday and lead testing taken annually.

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The issue came to light in December 2017 when town officials became aware of the missing records.

By February 2018 an investigation was launched by Alberta Environment with town officials and provincial investigators cooperating and looking into the inconsistencies with the record keeping.

That investigation found the town had 31 water main breaks between 2014 and 2017 which they failed to report to Alberta Environment.

Sanderson was fired by the town in February 2018 after working for the municipality since 2013.

In presenting an agreed statement of facts and sentence for both the town and Sanderson, the Crown prosecutor Craig Kallal outlined the seriousness of the offence, stating it put the community at risk.

In addition to the community sentence, Sanderson will be subject to a two-year probation order requiring him not to be involved in water distribution systems.

The Town of Bow Island was also sentenced to 2.5 years of probation which will require it to provide enhanced reporting to Alberta Environment over that period of time.

Bow Island Mayor Gordon Reynolds says there were no reports of people getting sick at the time of the offences, the town voluntarily reported the issues and it’s now strengthened its reporting protocols.

“We’ve put in a number of checks and balances in place. We have both our CAO and public works manager very engaged in this,” said Reynolds, adding enhanced oversight began in 2018.

He said changes in the ability to report testing results online to Alberta Environment will assist in ensuring compliance.