Potable water is something most people in First World countries take for granted.
So what the heck is happening in Chatham-Kent?
To the north, we have turbidity issues cropping up in family water wells that have run clean for years. The problems seem to develop soon after pile driving for wind turbines begins nearby.
To the south, water turned brown recently when a pump failed at the south water treatment plant, forcing about 12,000 Public Utilities Commission customers to boil their water for two days.
It was essentially a perfect storm of events that created the problem in South Kent. The Blenheim water tower, offline while it receives improvements, likely would have provided additional water pressure that would have prevented the drop in water pressure caused by a pump failure at the water treatment plant.
Some citizens impacted by the advisory aren’t happy with how they were informed – largely via online and social media.
Traditionally, in the case of small water line breaks, the PUC has notices hand delivered to impacted customers. But with such widespread impact – basically everyone on municipal water south of Highway 401 between Merlin and Morpeth (and a bit beyond) – the PUC thought this would take too long and wouldn’t be feasible, given the number of people they’d have had to use to deliver the pamphlets.
Would an automated phone system be a better option? Perhaps, but at what cost? Still, we are talking about the health of our citizens here. Can you put a price tag on public safety?
That’s a tough call.
As for the turbine construction and operation and the impact on water quality from wells in North Kent, there certainly seems to be some pretty strong evidence indicating a connection in at least some cases, the latest being the Brooks family on Brooks Line. They have documentation showing their well was just fine prior to pile driving that began earlier this month. Soon thereafter, their water filters clogged up in short order and the water that made it through ran cloudy.
The municipality, a partner with some of the wind turbine projects, is in a precarious position. It has to defend the rights of its citizens, yet arguably is in conflict of interest as it has a pecuniary interest with the turbines.
It’s no wonder families and farmers with fouled wells feel abandoned.
Developing a system to notify the public of a widespread water issue is not a tough call, it is a fudicuary responsibility and on top of that everyone knows that the communication attempts were too little, too late and not concise. If they can not do better and ensure most customers have been notified, then the water should have been shut off – which of course would have raised many other issues and concerns