WEST CARLETON – Ottawa Public Health (OPH) is making it easier for flood-affected residents to ensure their well water is safe to drink after flood waters have receded from around their wells.

Drop-off locations, dates and hours have been extended to be able to accommodate an anticipated increase in the number of well water samples being submitted. Well water bottle pick-up and sample drop-off sites can be found at OttawaPublicHealth.ca/flooding

All residents are encouraged to have their well water tested, but only once water has receded from the area around the well and 2 days have passed after the well has been disinfected.

Residents are advised to read through testing instructions carefully. The three most common reasons for which samples may not be tested include:

• Insufficient information supplied on the sample intake form
• A sample is older than 48 hours from the time the sample was taken and received by the lab
• The water sample was not drawn from a drinking water source