Infrastructure New system brings relief but it will come at a cost

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

2 comment(s)

PENOBSQUIS - Residents in Penobsquis are excited the construction of a new water system will begin this summer, but they want to know how much it will cost them.

Tammy Scott-Wallace/Telegraph-JournalResidents in Penobsquis don’t believe they should have to pay for water since they are not responsible for its demise. At a meeting in the community last week, Gordon Wasson of ADI, which is designing a new water system, talks to a resident who is looking for answers on the new system, expected to be started in June.

As it stands, all residents will be required to pay the same amount regardless of their usage. Commercial users will be metered.

Jeff Russell, project manager with the Department of Local Government, said until people confirm they will hook on to the system, the user fee will not be certain.

That cost makes a big difference to people like June McLaughin, a widow on a fixed income. For the first time she will have to pay a monthly bill for water and hire a plumber to connect the new supply to her home system. And while the 55 residents who have lived without water, some of them for four years, have enjoyed a break on their property taxes, McLaughin questions what will happen once the water is restored.

"You're the people who gave permission for potash and natural gas to do what they do," she told provincial officials during a community meeting last week. "We, as public citizens, shouldn't have to fight to get back what we already had."

Senior Bernice Fanjoy agrees.

"There shouldn't be any bill. We had our water taken away. We were here first," she said.

While local government's executive director Steve Battah argued that the province also isn't responsible for the water loss by saying "we didn't take your water away, someone else did," resident Beth Nixon quickly piped up reminding Battah that it is the province that gets a wealth of royalties from her community's natural resources and believes the province should be giving back.

Battah said he will soon negotiate a rate with anchor user PotashCorp in an attempt to reduce the user fee for residents. The 12-inch diameter water pipe will be installed from Springdale along Route 114 to PotashCorp's mining operations.

"That would certainly give a boost to reducing the cost," he said.

Residents at the meeting said Corridor Resources should also be asked to contribute.

Since water problems began in Penobsquis, the province has been paying for water to be delivered to household holding tanks.

Kings East MLA Bruce Northrup is rallying behind the residents who have had their quality of life turned upside down the past four years.

The Tory member wants the community to be given $100,000 a year from the royalties the province collects from resources in the area. In the coming month he will introduce a bill in the legislature asking the Liberal government to consider providing the funds to cover usage fees with leftover money to be used toward a community facility or upgrade.

The area's LSD chairwoman Chris Bell said too much is being taken away from her community and very little returned to the citizens who have suffered so much.

While a hydrogeological assessment in 2004 could not conclude PotashCorp is to blame for the destroyed wells, residents still point their fingers at the mining company and Corridor Resources.

What is clear is water has been dumping into the mine at about 1,200 gallons per minute and has to be trucked away.

PotashCorp has been supplying drinking water to families and has committed $1.2 million toward the $8-million water project to buy properties to house the service in Springdale.

The funds will also cover some costs of lateral hookups to individual homes from the main line. Gas tax funds are paying for the rest.

Gordon Wasson of ADI, which is designing the system, said laterals will be branched off the main line to homes that want access to water. The system will be designed to accommodate extensions to the system if more people lose their water over time.

The problem for many residents is not only do they have to make a decision on hook-up before they know the usage cost, some of them are frustrated that to get the lateral installed for free, they have to decide right away even though they still have working wells.

Battah said more consideration has to be given to extending the deadline for free installation.

"It's fair to think down the road more houses will lose their water," he said. "We'll take (the concern) back and think about it."