Community Update: Thank you to Community and Partners During Bracebridge Water Emergency

The water main break failure that occurred in the late evening of Saturday, January 9, 2021 in Bracebridge was exceptionally large in scope and scale.  The District offers its sincere apology for the significant impacts and inconveniences that were experienced by the entire Bracebridge community during the water service disruption and the Boil Water Advisory that resulted. 

Thank you to our Community, Partners and Staff

First and foremost we would like to thank the residents and businesses of Bracebridge for their support and patience. We understand the devastating impacts this emergency caused our community.

Last week was frustrating, challenging, uncertain and unexpected – all compounded by the challenges that residents and businesses are already facing due to COVID-19 restrictions. Even through these challenges, we experienced an incredible outpouring of support by our entire Muskoka community, who rallied together to face the challenges associated with this emergency.  Many members of our community needed help – and many individuals, families and businesses answered the call. Thank you!

We also want to thank our staff and partners at the Town of Bracebridge, Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks and Fowlers Construction who worked tirelessly to expedite repairs, testing, and system flushing to restore this essential service as quickly as possible. A special thank you to Lakeland Networks and our local media for their support in sharing updates to our customers and the community.

What We Are Doing to Protect Our Water System

The District of Muskoka invests in our infrastructure to replace old water pipes and upgrade infrastructure, but unfortunately it is still common for water mains to break.  The District is committed to providing reliable safe drinking water and will be completing a third-party review of the emergency in the coming weeks.  Any opportunities and recommendations that are identified through the third-party review process will be given due consideration and implemented where appropriate.

While we await more information from the third-party review, steps have already been put in place to prevent future incidents and also to improve how we communicate with the community. 

These steps include:

• Internal, external and Emergency Control Group debriefings to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement in the response to this emergency
• Investigation into why the water main failed and research into availability of better technology to locate water main breaks
• Engineering review of the water distribution system
• Review and update of emergency communication protocols to enhance notification to residents and investment in communication tools (i.e. Integrated Voice Response)

We understand our community has questions about what happened, we’re committed to keeping you updated as more information and investigation results are available.