ARTHUR — A new water source located for Arthur could provide both quantity and quality, the municipality heard Monday.
On Monday, the Township of Wellington North heard director of operations Matt Aston explain the successful news of the finding of a new water source that will hopefully provide Arthur's residents more water with a less harsh aesthetic.
“We set out to drill a well to find out if we could improve on water aesthetics in Arthur,” said Matt Aston, who offered leadership and assistance to developing the new test well.
The aesthetic element refers to discolouration found in some Arthur water.
The project had previously involved finding that water source and then more recently had further testing to understand the amount of water as well as the quality of that water.
“Quality is there but I think what we found is a source that has a lot of water, that has less iron and manganese than is typical from our well seven and eight location,” said Aston.
The new test well does have traces of arsenic that is not considered a hurdle.
“It has an arsenic issue that we can treat. But the arsenic issue isn’t enough to trigger a quality issue either," said Aston.
TW1-21, the test well, can provide a significant amount of water at 27 litres per second.
The test well is on township land by Wells Street, less than a kilometre north of Domville Street.
“So I think we’re pretty excited about what we found for a water source going through that activity. And certainly it won’t have the discolouration that, you know, is prevalent or is seen in Arthur," said Aston.
A new water source is also necessary to add water supply as well as increase water quality as the community grows.
Residents of Arthur currently get their water through the Arthur Water Supply System that relies on three wells.
The township council is alloting $200,000 for an evironmental assessment into the development of the new water source.
The EA will determine the environmental, social and economic impacts of the new well. Who will do the EA has not been decided.
Jesse Gault is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
