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1. Is our water safe?

Yes. The City of White Rock is committed to providing safe and clean water to its water users. That is why we monitor and test the water and distribution system on a regular basis and address water and infrastructure matters. Having ownership of the water utility provides us with the opportunity to make decisions to further enhance the City’s water quality beyond what is mandated by Health Canada and Fraser Health.

Fraser Health, as the regulatory agency for drinking water in this jurisdiction, has no public health concerns in regards to the City of White Rock's water safety or quality.

Fraser Health has also created a resource with answers to frequently asked questions about the safety and quality of the City's water. You can find the above information at Fraser Health and navigate to City of White Rock Drinking Water. Fraser Health will continue to monitor the quality of drinking water in the City as per the health authority's legislated mandate and established regulations.

2. How will you guarantee a safe supply of water so we don’t have a boil water advisory again?

The Total Water Quality Management Plan (TWQMP) will provide secondary disinfection to the water supply and upgrade critical system infrastructure to ensure consistent and reliable service of high-quality drinking water. The TWQMP was required based on the recommendations of the 2010 Boil Water Notice Report when the water utility was under private ownership.

As a result of the report, the Fraser Health Authority had directed the previous owners of the water utility that a secondary disinfectant had to be in place by June 2016. On October 30, 2015, the City of White Rock acquired the water utility from a private company. In 2016, the City of White Rock asked the Fraser Health Authority for an extension in regards to introducing a secondary disinfection so that the City could conduct some testing prior to full implementation of a secondary disinfection. The Fraser Health Authority approved this and the City had until February 1, 2017, to implement a secondary disinfection treatment.

As part of the TWQMP, upgrades to improve the overall system safety and reliability are being addressed.

3. Does the City perform water quality tests?

Yes. The City conducts ongoing water quality tests. The City performs weekly tests for bacteria and quarterly quality testing for metals, all data is available on our Water Quality page.

4. Does the City have adequate water supply in case of an emergency such as the Five Corners fire?

Yes. The Oxford and Merklin reservoirs are now constructed and operational, therefore along with the existing Roper reservoir, have increased the water storage capacity by 33%.

In October of 2015, when the City purchased the water utility, the total available water storage was 4.50 million litres. During the fire, on May 15, 2016, the total available water to fight the fire was 4.65 million litres, 150,000 litres more than when the City purchased the utility. Since that time, the City has constructed a new water reservoir that did not previously exist and completed a second in April of 2017. This means the City’s total available storage is now 6.05 million litres, which is 1.55 million litres more than when the City purchased the utility.

The 6.05 million litres is the future storage amount recommended by the consultant to service a population of 26,650 for the year 2031. According to the 2016 census, White Rock’s current population is at 19,952.