WELLINGTON NORTH ‒ Some Arthur residents are asking their council to address why discoloured, dirty water is "the norm" for their town, amid concerns the situation is worse than usual.
While the township issued a memo telling residents to expect weekly water main flushes on Thursdays, several people have experienced water issues outside of the promised hours.
With more developments on the horizon, Josh Heiliger, who has lived in Arthur for over a decade, alleged the water issues will only worsen and there’s no good reason why something hasn’t been done yet.
“Ultimately, simply based upon the appearance and the excessive chlorination of our water supply, again, anyone that experiences it would be willfully ignorant to not question it,” said Heiliger. “With the influx of (hundreds of) new homes, the likely addition of (a thousand plus) estimated new residents, our water issues cannot be overlooked.”
Heiliger said the water clarity varies from clear, to cloudy, to rusty, to brown and stains clothing, even when they follow the county suggestions to flush lines, alleging they waste litres of water while trying to combat discolouration.
“The problem is an intermittent one, but there's no obvious timetable of when it occurs,” said Heiliger. “I'd venture to say that the clarity of the water is at its worst, on average, once every few weeks.”
When asked about the discoloured water incidents, Corey Schmidt, manager of Wellington North's environmental and development services, said summer construction can result in water mains being flushed outside of the regular Thursday hours but he couldn't say how often this occurs.
In the past Matt Aston, a former public works director for Wellington North, said finding a new well location with less iron and manganese "than is typical" within their existing wells will improve Arthur's "water aesthetics."
Residents of Arthur currently get their water through three wells within the municipal water supply system.
Although Heiliger knows chlorine is added to the water, he said it's highly detectable by smell and taste and leaves a slight ‘greasy’ feel to the water.
“Anyone with fully functioning eyeballs can see that the water is less than ideal at times, “ said Heiliger. “(That) always raises a concern whether it's for health reasons, how it may affect our laundry, or appliances, etc.”
Homeowners in Arthur since 2008, Heiliger says the water chlorination has been a perpetual issue, filtering their water manually.
“This helps minimize the chlorine smell and taste,” said Heiliger. “However, on the worse days, it doesn't seem to help much with the discolouration.”
Having lived in Arthur for close to 25 years, Eddie Baratto, whose property backs onto the pump, said that he’s always relied on bottled water as it was "the norm" to have rust-coloured water.
However, over the last one to two months, that colour has changed to a deep brown and is often accompanied by a film that “terrified” him when he first saw it.
“I was topping up the hot tub, probably three inches of water, and you couldn't see the bottom it was that dark,” said Baratto. “It didn’t have a smell to it but it felt like a waxy paste and I wondered if it was actual fecal matter.”
Taking his concerns and a water sample to public health, he said they refused to test it, telling him the well water is tested daily.
But a few days later, the thick paste returned.
“It would be nice to be able to drink our water,” said Baratto. “But I'm afraid to just because of what I see go through (the pipes).”
Baratto and Heiliger share many residents' feelings that the municipality has failed to address the concerns with openly communicated plans or commitments despite ongoing knowledge of the issues.
“We all pay our fair share and then some in taxes, and for the use of water,” said Heiliger. “If funding is the issue, there has to be a surplus somewhere that they can direct to correcting the problem.”
Heiliger said was told by officials that exploratory drilling for a new water source has taken place and looks promising, however, awaiting the approval process takes a long time and is out of the hands of the county.
“The excuse, in my opinion, was blaming the current changes in town, re: construction etc.,” said Heiliger. “Which is interesting, given that construction has been at a peak for maybe a year, while these issues with our water have far surpassed a decade.”
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
