What conditions allowed Walkerton town water supply pollution to go undetected by most of the water users?

Answer 1

They did not get sick and associate their sickness with their water supply.

Answer 2

the people that use the public water supply are trusting that the water is safe and that it has been treated and tested as required by law. that fact is really what caused the undectection by the people . no one really sends tap water from a public system off to be tested on there own its just that simple.
the two brothers who looked after the water system did not have training no certification nothing . they failed to send water samples in for testing when they should have and they failed to act when the tests they did have done showed the water was unsafe.
they really only new that the water needed cholirine in it . they did not know how much other then at some point years ago someone showed them to add a jug once a day or something like that . they did not know how to figure out how much chorlrine was needed to treat a varriing amount of water usage.
one of the cholrine supply systems failed . they new about this but they did not think that was important.
really accroding to there statements the only way they new how much chlorine was needed was by the smell . they said when the water smelled to much of chlorine that was too much .
the two of them were goofs. the small town mentality of giving jobs to joe and bob because there family has been around a long time and bobs dad drinks beer with stan the dept mayor is just not right .that is about how they got the jobs and that is why they new nothing about the way to treat water.
in addtion since they were so stupid about the water they simply just did not bother to alert anyone that the water was failing the tests.
later the health dept should have alerted the people as soon as it was suspected that the water was bad but they too messed up and thought the two goofs new what they were doing. only when a number of people were very ill some dead did the health dept doctor get involved and tell the people .
that is the story of walkerton and the two goofs who could drink beer so they got to kill people and get paid for it.