Canyon City City Hall distributed a flyer to residents on Oct. 3, 2022, warning about the potential of pathogens in municipal drinking water, although a public works official insists there is no real danger.

CANYON CITY — Is Canyon City’s water safe to drink?

A flyer distributed to residents on Oct. 3 hints it may not be, although a city official insists there is no reason for alarm.

The flyer advises anybody who is pregnant, has a compromised immune system, has an infant or is elderly to seek advice from their medical care provider about drinking the water as they may be at increased risk from potential disease-causing agents such as bacteria, viruses and parasites that may have infiltrated the city’s water system.

The potential infiltration of Canyon City’s water system stems from the 2015 Canyon Creek Fire, which changed the hydrology of the city’s watershed, according to the flyer sent to residents. Tim Madden of the Canyon City Public Works Department said the likely cause of the change in hydrology is due to fine ash particles from the fire making their way into the town’s reservoir, resulting in the water supply being deemed groundwater with surface influence by the state.

“Our reservoir was a really dark color. We tried to get rid of that. We dumped the water out of the reservoir and got water from John Day and pumped it into our system and did quite a few things to get that out of our reservoir,” Madden said.

The state got involved after that, which led to the change in designation from groundwater to groundwater with surface influence. “It took them several tests, but finally they proved that there was some surface water influence in there,” Madden said.

Madden stressed the quality of the city’s water is exactly the same as it has always been. “There aren’t pathogens in there,” he said. “We test it every month, and we pass every test that we’ve ever had.”

Madden said that there is a slim possibility something could come through water, although nothing ever has.

“Because there is surface water influence and we don’t have a filtration system … they had us send those flyers out to everyone saying that there could be (some pathogens in the water),” he added.

The city is in the design stage of adding a water filtration system to its reservoir, and the goal is to have the system up and running by the spring or summer of 2023. In the meantime, the city is chlorinating its water, a step Madden said will neutralize any potential pathogens before they reach the homes of residents.

“The possibility for someone to get sick off our water is extremely small,” he said. “Not only do we test every month, but we take daily tests to make sure that the contact time with our chlorine is enough to kill anything if there was anything.”