Many residents of Woodland Drive are having to parcel out their homes’ water supply judiciously.
The neighbourhood on the westerly limits of the City is experiencing water shortages and, in some cases, dry wells and some septic system malfunctions.
In a letter to the City, resident Martin Sills describes his household water situation as a steady decline that began 10 years ago.
It started with an insufficient supply to water the lawn and eventually led to “closing of two of our bathrooms,” only flushing when absolutely necessary, challenges house cleaning and doing laundry in town.
Sills isn’t aware of the exact number of residences that are impacted but there are 35 homes in the neighbourhood.
“The water situation has always been a little dicey,” he says.
What’s made it worse is the fact the bedrock wells that rely on ground-water seepage have been suffering from a lack of precipitation in the last few years.
As an interim measure, Sills installed a reservoir and another family is hauling water.
Beyond functioning day to day, Sills says without water the homes are virtually worthless.
“The average house on Woodland Drive is probably half a million dollars. Probably half of them couldn’t be sold because they don’t qualify for a mortgage. Here I am in a six-bedroom, three-sundeck house and if I was transferred I would be financially hooped because I can’t sell it. No one would buy it and it wouldn’t qualify for a mortgage.”
He says the city has a responsibility to provide the services and that most residents are happy to pay the costs necessary to move ahead.
“The cost of bringing water and sewer up to my house is going to be substantial and extremely disruptive and I will have to tear into my landscaping, my lawn and tear up the concrete work. Do I want to do this? No. Do I have to do it? Absolutely, yes.”
For its part, the City, over the last two years, has completed a feasibility study and moved ahead with the preliminary design of a chosen system that would draw water off the reservoir located below Woodland Drive, pressurize it and pump it up to the houses in the neighbourhood; a new sewer system would connect with the system in Westridge.
Council expects to have more comprehensive information, including costs, of the preliminary design by Feb. 15; it will then decide how to proceed.
Brian Carruthers, City chief administrative officer, says it may be an option to finance the system, at least partially, through a cost-sharing grant.
If the City doesn’t receive a grant for the project, council could decide to borrow the funds, which would require electorate approval through an alternative approval process or referendum.
Council has invited members of the community to speak to them regarding this issue at its Feb. 8 meeting.
“We have run out of options is the bottom line,” says Sills. “It is the responsibility of the City. We respect the fact that the budget has had other priorities over the years but now people are simply running out of water. We can’t wait much longer. It has to occur this year.”
