Dear Editor,

My wife, two young children and myself had the absolute pleasure of spending the Thanksgiving long weekend in Invermere. We hail from Turner Valley, Alberta. I realize many of your visitors are from the Calgary area and we represent a substantial impact on your communities economy. Rightly so, it is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Our stay, for the most part, was incredible — great people, inviting atmosphere.

I will continue to visit your location in the future. However, I have noticed a putrid, vegetative smell coming from your tap water? I was tempted to boil the water and put iodine in it to make sure it was safe to drink! I was told that the water is safe, but with the formaldehyde/rotten egg smell, it is hard to be confident when drinking it. I have memories of 12 years ago in the Walkerton, ON area where people died and thousands fell ill from contaminated water. I would not want to see something of this scope fall on the valley area.

I took a drive up to the water reservoir where Invermere’s water is drawn from; even if I were a fish I would not go there. The weeds and suspicious floating film on the water appeared as if it belonged in a Stephen King book.

I can only hope that the town and area finds some time and funding to get a handle on this. I would love to retire in this area, but I would need to see some action take place first!

Matt Carpenter

Turner Valley, AB