Small Alberta Town Screws Up, Turns All Tap Water Pink

Trevor Winfield was taking a dump when he saw the water running in his sink turn to bubblegum pink—so, while pooping, he decided to take a video.

"My water is broken," he wrote when posting the video to Facebook. "Thanks town of Onoway."

Poopin' Trev wasn't the only person to notice the pink water in the town of Onoway. All across the small town north of Edmonton, Alberta the water was turning that colour.

Yeah, that's right, the whole town got a little pink in their sink.

(Extra points if you spotted the shower beer in that video.)

The 1,000 or so residents of Onoway were rightfully dumbfounded and a little frightened by this weird occurrence—they didn't know what the hell was going on.

Well, as it turns out, the screw up came from the town. In a statement posted to the Town of Onoway's website, mayor Dale Krasnow, wrote that during the town's routine flushing of the line "a valve may have stuck allowing the potassium permanganate to get into our sump reservoir and thereby into the town's water distribution system."

Potassium permanganate is a chemical used in water treatment to oxidize dissolved particles that can be filtered out in the water—the only real side effect by the chemical is skin irritation in high doses.

Krasnow said that Onoway was draining their reservoir because of the screwup. He went on to say that the public was safe and apologized for the lack of communication between the town and it's residents.

"Could the town have done a better job of communicating what was going on yesterday to our community—absolutely, without a doubt," he wrote. " And we do apologize for that."

Two representatives from Environment Alberta made their way to the small town to inspect its systems and determine what happened. Krasnow said that the town is working with Environment Alberta and  the"equipment will be taken offline and no further backwashing with potassium permanganate will occur until the system is operating properly."

"All main lines have been flushed and are clear, however there may be some residual in your service lines. Property owners may need to run their water for a few minutes to clear their service lines."

Or, you know, you could just not do that and keep that sweet, sweet pink water running for as long you can.

Lead photo via Facebook.

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