Owen Sound Water Plant Was Down Two Treatment Units When Boil Water Advisory Was Issued

The City disclosed a filter was offline during Owen Sound's boil water advisory in March. It didn't mention a flocculator had failed in December, and its replacement isn't expected until 2027.

Owen Sound’s Richard H. Neath Water Purification plant at 2600 3rd Avenue East, Owen Sound. A previous version of this article contained a photo of the Owen Sound Wastewater Treatment Plant at 2050 3rd Avenue East.

Owen Sound’s water treatment plant was running with two treatment units out of service when the City issued a precautionary boil water advisory in March, and one of them had failed nearly three months earlier, the City has confirmed.

During the advisory, the City told residents that “infrastructure upgrades to redundant equipment” and changing weather affecting raw water from Georgian Bay were limiting the plant’s capacity. It did not mention that a second unit — a flocculator — had failed in December and was also offline at the time.

The failure surfaced in June, in written responses from City staff to questions from the Owen Sound Current. Staff said the replacement flocculator is not expected to be installed until late 2026 or early 2027.

The City has not said whether the unit has remained out of service continuously since December, or whether it is operating now. Owen Sound Current asked again on July 5; the City had not responded by publication.

The City requested that responses to our questions be attributed to “Staff” and not to any particular person.

Two units offline during the boil water advisory

The advisory ran from the evening of Saturday, March 14 to the afternoon of Monday, March 16. Through it, the R. H. Neath (Owen Sound) Water Purification Plant operated with one flocculation tank and one filter out of service — a fact the City did not disclose at the time and confirmed only in June, in written responses to questions from Owen Sound Current.