Is the Township of Langley destroying its emergency water sources?

For years, residents of Murrayville in the Township of Langley had been complaining about the quality of their water. Often, tap water would come out a rusty brown colour instead of clear. Pipes often corroded, leading to leaks that in turn led to severe damage to people’s homes. Plumbers would frequently tell the residents that the well water was to blame.

In 2019, the situation made national headlines when the CBC reported that Murrayville residents complained about brown water coming from their taps. 

“It’s really an aesthetic issue,” said Roland Zwaag, the Township’s director of public works at the time. “It is not a health hazard.”

The Township’s 2022 official Water Quality Report discusses the issue at length. 

“The aesthetic issues in the Murrayville water supply are caused by the reaction of chlorine with the manganese and iron that is present in all water sourced from the groundwater wells in the area. The chlorine reacts with the manganese and iron and causes it to precipitate out of solution resulting in a yellow or brown tint to the water,” the report said. “It should be noted that with the exception of Brookswood Well 10, all of the wells servicing Murrayville are within the health-based MAC (maximum acceptable concentration). The issue is solely with the aesthetic based AO (Aesthetic Objective).”

Mayor Eric Woodward won the election in 2018 on the promise that he would fix the water situation in the area, supplying residents with what they have always wanted: clear, clean, fresh water. 

Several wells were decommissioned, and the neighbourhoods that complained of water issues started receiving water purchased from Metro Vancouver. 

Earthquakes, drought, and climate change 

Not all Township residents were happy with the decision to decommission the wells. Some say that the Township had already purchased equipment to purify the water, and instead of using the water treatment equipment, opted to purchase water from Metro Vancouver. 

“If the pipe that delivers Metro Vancouver water to the Township of Langley—I think the connection is somewhere in like along 200th Street in North Langley—if something happens with that pipe, like in an earthquake, for example, or if something happens to any of the surface water supply that Metro Vancouver uses, then all of those neighbourhoods would have to get water trucked in,” said Township resident Cheryl Wiens. 

According to Brian Jones, senior water system operator at the Township of Langley, the water treatment facilities were just about to come online when the mayor and council put a halt to the plan. 

“The treatment system was bought, delivered, and installed. We were ready to flick the switch that day. That was the same day that Woodward got elected, and that day he ordered us to shut down the well,” Jones told the Current.

Jones, who is now retired, told the Current that the problems with the water could have been solved easily with the treatment equipment the Township had purchased, and it would have been more cost-effective than buying water from Metro Vancouver. 

“Well number two in Fort Langley had some issues with a low pH, which is an easy fix. The problem was there was a delay in getting a treatment system in place,” Jones said. “What happened was, some people’s plumbing was being affected by the low pH. Now, if your plumbing was good, you shouldn’t have a problem. But there’s older poly B and stuff out there. So those houses were having problems, and the plumbers would just blame the water.” 

The primary concern that Jones and Wiens expressed was the complete decommissioning of the wells. Decommissioning involves removing all access to the well water by completely filling in the well. This, Jones said, is the main problem. In the event of an earthquake, both Jones and Wiens are worried that the Metro Vancouver pipes may be damaged, leading to a severe water shortage in the Township. 

“Wells are way more earthquake-proof. They have vital couplings. They have a lot of movement. So a well would most likely survive an earthquake, and even if it didn’t, a well is a very easy repair,” Jones said. “You get a rig out there, you can pull the casing, put a new casing in; a simple repair. Repairing that pipeline underneath the Fraser River, that isn’t happening in a day or two.”

Jones also said it would have been easy for the Township to deactivate the wells and only conduct routine maintenance periodically to ensure they remain safe without decommissioning them.

“It’s very cheap to maintain a well. You have an operator go there once a week, make sure the building’s still there. You know, a minimal amount of staff time and cost to maintain a well. You literally just fire it up once a month, let it run, and shut it back off. We’ve had a series of wells throughout the Township that we did that with,” Jones said. 

The Current had previously reported on the decommissioning of wells in the Township and published a letter from Fraser Health about the importance of maintaining Well #2 as a backup water source. However, the Township has decommissioned eight municipal wells since then, as Wiens had reported. The wells are Fort Langley Wells 1 and 2, Willoughby Well 1, Brookswood Wells 7, 9, 10, and Murrayville Wells 1 and 2. 

The Government of BC Groundwater Protection Regulation (GWPR) outlines specific safety requirements for abandoned wells once an area is connected to the municipal water supply. 

The GWPR best practices document states, “​​Abandoned or unused wells can deteriorate over time and become a threat to groundwater. Near the ground surface, failures in a well casing, cap, or surface seal can allow surface contaminants into the well. Deeper in the well, holes in a well casing can allow water from different aquifers to mix. Abandoned wells may also represent a potential hazard to human safety.”

However, the GWPR does not require decommissioning immediately. 

“The GWPR states that if a well has not been used for a period of 5 years it must be deactivated. A deactivated well has a secure cap or cover, has no power to the pump, is maintained in a safe and sanitary condition, and is accessible to inspection. If a well has been deactivated for 5 years, or not in use for 10 years, and if there is no intent to use the well in future, the well must be decommissioned,” the best practices document said. 

It is unclear why the Township of Langley decided to completely decommission the wells instead of deactivating them and maintaining them as a backup water source. The Current reached out to the Township for more information and for comment on this story; however, at the time of writing, the Current has not received any reply.