Winnipeg boil-water advisory is lifted

Winnipeg'sboil-water advisory has been lifted.

Ourcity'sdrinking water remains safe to drink,"Mayor Brian Bowman said.

Bowman told a press conference at 3:30 p.m. CT,The provinces medical officer of health has notified us that they have lifted the precautionary boil-water advisory for the city of Winnipeg."

Winnipeg hadbeen under the advisory sinceTuesday evening, when the city revealed six of 39 routine samples taken Monday showed signs of bacteria andE. coli.

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Bowman andGeoffPatton, the city'sacting director of water and waste, said Wednesday thatresampling efforts indicated the initialconcerningresults were false positives.

Butbecause Health Canada requires two sets of negative samples 24 hours apart before it will lift a boil-water-advisory, the city decided to wait until more results were in Thursday.

"I'd like to thank all Winnipeggersfor being patient in the last two days," said Bowman, holding up a glass of water at the press conference. "This is tap water, by the way, and we're good to drink it." Then he drank from the glass.

Bowman and the city have usedsocial media to provide updates.

Officials said additional results came back negative for bacteria, but many questions remain about how the original samples resulted in false positives.

Patton repeated that the false positives may have been a product of sampling or testing error, but that it is too soon to be sure.

DianeSacher,Winnipeg's director of water and waste management, saidofficials are taking a close look at the city's approach to sampling."We did a review of our sampling and testing protocols and did make some changes, and so obviously we need to do something different this time."

Sacher saidthe city's primary concern now is to investigate the circumstances that led to the false results.

"That's obviously going to be a high priority for us now, to determine why that happened and find out what we can do to prevent that from happening again."