Havelock North Inquiry - Stage 2 Report
The latest news for New Zealand’s Drinking Water industry is that the Havelock North report has been released. The Ministry of Health will work through the series of recommendations and will respond with a series of operational changes
There have already been many articles published online and in national newspapers explaining the potential impact of the report. Whatever the Ministry decides, this impact is going to be felt very quickly and will affect everyone currently working within the industry.
For laboratories there is potential for many significant changes, including the following:
Sampling Changes
One of the criticisms of the report centred on the collection of samples and how they were delivered to the laboratory. This appears to have been addressed by the requirement to implement a certification process for water samplers.
“The Ministry of Health should establish an effective regime for drinking water samplers, including (at least) training, certification, and oversight”
Eurofins-ELS General Manager Rob Deacon is currently visiting many of our council customers to discuss transitional sampling procedures which will address the immediate issues before the final changes are published.
The purpose of this visit will be to discuss the best way to identify suitable sample points and how to collect, label and transport samples to the laboratory. Part of this process is to ensure accurate paperwork traceability as well as to check the calibration procedures of on-site testing equipment.
Click here to learn about our Sampling services.
Test Changes
The tests offered by laboratories may also be changing. The report is seeking to have total coliforms added to routine samples and for enumeration of the results to be performed. Currently, many of our customers are already receiving a total coliforms result with each E. coli result, with the bulk of the results being reported using the presence absence method.
If the change is adopted then the impact will not only be extra work for the laboratories but higher prices for the customer.
“The Ministry of Health should recommend to the Minister that he invokes 69P(2) to dispense with consultation and urgently amend the DWSNZ to require routine monitoring of total coliforms and to remove the use of presence/absence testing for E.coli and total coliforms”
This graphic helps understand the difference between E. coli and coliforms. The larger group of bacteria are called Enterobacteriaceae and some of the bacteria in this group are coliforms. Some of this smaller coliforms group are faecal coliforms and some of that group are E. coli.
Therefore, coliforms include E. coli and faecal coliforms.
Click here to learn more about our Drinking Water testing services.
Level 2 Laboratory Status
In the early days of the Drinking Water Standards, some regions could not be served by a testing laboratory due to sample delivery constraints. This led to a parallel accreditation programme called “IANZ Level 2” which fell outside the scope of full IANZ accreditation. These Level 2 labs still require good systems but the level of those systems falls short of a fully IANZ accredited laboratory.
“The Director-General should promptly remove Level 2 laboratory recognition”
Of the 49 labs listed on the ESR drinking water website eight are shown as being Level 2. According to the Havelock report these labs will need to seek full IANZ accreditation or stop testing drinking water samples.
With greater water-quality awareness amongst the public, there will come a greater need to test private supplies. In addition to council Source, Treatment, and Reticulation testing Eurofins can offer a full domestic suite of tests to determine if the water is safe to drink. We recommend all private untreated water systems to have a domestic UV treatment installed by a registered plumber.
