While the municipal administration in Saint Lazare is telling its citizens to be responsible when it comes to using drinking water, an investigation conducted by Néomédia Vaudreuil-Soulanges has revealed the city is apparently not following its own regulations.

The revelation was first reported by Néomédia journalist Jessica Brisson who broke the story after speaking to an unnamed source who requested anonymity.

The source confirmed that treated water is being used to clean the city's streets. In addition, the tanker trucks have 'non-treated water' signs on the vehicles when they are in fact filled with treated water. 

"It's been like this for years. It doesn't make sense. People have to know," said the source.

"During the summer, the city bans watering for weeks at a time to conserve water. Residents need special permits to fill their pools and people who violate the rules are fined, yet the city does the exact opposite. It doesn't make sense," the source added.

Christelle Paré, the city's Director of Communications, said she was very surprised to hear about the revelation. She did, however, confirm that street cleaning was indeed being done with treated water.

"We use sweeper trucks that are mechanically sensitive for street cleaning. In order to avoid breakage and expensive costs, we sometimes use treated water as a precautionary measure. We use untreated water whenever possible from an independent system that we have," said Paré.

"Untreated water also contain  particles that could infiltrate into a vehicle's mechanisms and cause significant damage to the equipment which is why treated water is used for street cleaning," she said.

"We are currently testing other untreated water sources to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of treated water in our operatons," added Paré.

More treated water than they want you to think

"The city's water trucks are brought to the Public Works garage to fill the tanks several times a day. Even though signs on the trucks indicate they contain untreated water, I can confirm this is totally false," the source claimed.

Paré denied the accusation. "Untreated water signs are installed on our tankers and they only contain untreated water," she said.

"Our street sweeper is also an in-house modified vehicle that only uses gravity to spread water. This system allows us to reduce our water consumption compared to conventional tankers equipped with a nozzle and pressure that are usually used for street cleaning," Paré confirmed.

Néomédia went to the site and saw several water tankers going to the public works garage to be refilled.

One question, however, remains unanswered. Is it possible that the garage has two water outlets, one with treated water and the other with untreated water? 

"No. No confusion is possible. The water trucks are not filled at the public works building. There are several filling points including Westwood Park, Les Forestiers Nature Park and the creek in front of city hall," said Paré.

"Our teams are also working to make two more points available to fill tankers in the near future, on Saint Robert and Grand Pré," Paré added.

Artificial ponds filled from aquifers

There are artificial ponds at the entrance of the Cedarbrook, Saddlebrook and Chanterelle residential districts which provide a more rural feel to these neighbourhoods. 

But this does not come at the expense of water supplies. "As citizens, we are not allowed to use treated water for most of the summer.  But to make the entrance to these areas look nice, treated water is taken directly from the water table to fill these ponds. I want to think it's untreated water, but it's not," the source revealed.

"The water drawn from the ground is redirected directly into the ponds, which are non-watertight basins that allow the water to percolate into the ground. So a lot of the water that is taken out from the ground is returned to the land," said Paré.

"Our team has been working for some time to improve this aspect by designing the ponds differently, notably by creating larger shaded areas," Paré said.

"Finally, treated water is not used for non-essential operations. We don't take shortcuts and will continue to look for green alternatives regarding our procedures. We are being creative, as in the case of our tankers. Protecting the environment is a priority for all our teams," she added.