There were more water troubles Saturday for the municipality that includes Walkerton, Ont., where a tainted water tragedy was blamed for seven deaths in 2000.
Public Health officials warned residents of the municipality of Brockton on Friday not to use water from two lakes due to potentially harmful toxins from algae.
The Grey Bruce Health Unit said potentially toxic blue-green algae is growing in Marl Lake and Lake Rosalind, about two kilometres north of the town of Hanover.
Residents are ordered to not use the water at all, whether for drinking, swimming, or washing.
Boiling the water could actually increase the toxicity levels.
Charlie Bagnato, mayor of the Brockton said this is the third time in the last three years that officials have issued an algae warning for Lake Rosalind.
He said other municipalities in the province have also dealt with the same kind of algae in the past and he wants to see the provincial government get involved.
"The province should be pushed to action here, they've got to do something about this," he said, but he didn't indicate specifically what the government should do.
There are about 270 homes and cottages around the affected lakes, Mr. Bagnato said, adding he and two others hand-delivered information about the advisory Friday night.
He says people in the area tend to drink bottled water because of the previous algae warnings and because they worry about bird feces in the lake.
No one has yet become sick from coming into contact with the water and Mr. Bagnato says he doesn't expect anyone will.
"People realize it and it's no problem. I don't think you'll have anybody getting sick from it," he said, explaining people in the area recognize the algae when it appears.
"It's just a bloom that comes up and you'll see it. It's a kind of a blue-green tinge on the water and a little scum on the surface," he said.
He said officials have told him the algae can cause digestive system problems and skin rashes.
Residents who access water from a private well are not affected by the order, which will remain in effect until water samples taken by the Ministry of Environment show the water is safe.
The algae problem is different than the tainted watner tragedy the municipality was confronted with a decade ago.
The town of Walkerton's water supply became tainted with E.Coli bacteria and was blamed for at least seven deaths and about 25-hundred others became ill.
The disaster triggered a public inquiry that blamed the town's utilities commission and the provincial government for the tragedy.
The blue-green algae has surfaced across the country in recent weeks.
A Manitoba algae specialist said last week that blue-green algae was blooming on a lake in the province, and yesterday, engineers at New Brunswick's Canadian Forces Base Gagetown said they suspect blue-green algae is obstructing filters, and stalling water treatment.