Some Riverview residents are raising concerns over water quality.
Jennifer Langille lives on Grandhill Drive and presented photos of brown water to councillors.
“For years, Grandhill has had poor quality water, so much so that the fire hydrants are regularly flushed on a weekly and sometimes bi-weekly schedule. Before the new hydrant was installed a couple of weeks ago, we had a neighbour asked to run their hose, 24/7 for six weeks. There was no request to try and recapture the water. It was just flushed down the drain,” Langille told Town Councillors during this week’s meeting.
“The flushing also causes more dirty water. This can affect our bath water, our drinking water, and water used to brush our teeth and forget whites in your wash. Our toilets and sinks get stained easily and are washed more frequently. We also need to drain our hot water tanks on a monthly cycle, sometimes more often, as they fill with iron and dirt.”
She claims the water quality has gotten worse this year, and they have been complaining for years.
Pictures of the water were shown to the Town Council and a jar of discoloured water was also presented.
Langille also played audio of the loud vibrations residents endured during the recent flushing of water lines. She also claims the vibrations have created leaks in pipes and mud buildup has clogged sinks.
“The water quality is continuing not to be acceptable, and we are still seeing flushing of pipes weekly. We are not informed of anything, including if we should have a boil order. Testing is not being done inside our homes before or after flushing. We are years away from a solution to address the old iron pipes being replaced, and we see the town growing.”
Langille says many residents are choosing to have independent testing done on the water to ensure it is safe to drink.
“We’re not asking this to be fixed this year. We understand there’s a budget and that everybody has to follow it, but we do know that the budget process is starting now for next year, and we are asking that the town put in the budget the replacement of these pipes in 2025. We are asking that until this time, we be given filters in each of the homes paid by the town, and a reduction of our taxes until this is fixed.”
Town Project Manager Michel Ouellet says complaints and concerns have been brought to their attention in the past, but he adds there are a lot of factors to this issue.
“We are working at it, trying to get the dirty water out of this main, or the deposits in the pipe outside of the main and we are making some progress. The turbidity has dropped significantly ever since the hydrants have been installed,” he says.
Ouellet also informed residents that the water is treated by the city of Moncton, and oversees water quality monitoring throughout the tri-community.
“They do 13,000 samples a year, and one sample is actually located just very close to the street at the end of White Pine and Canusa, at the water booster station, so very close proximity. The report is available online, and it’s shown no parameters have ever exceeded the public health quality guidelines,” Ouellet says.
The main issue is old cast iron pipes from the 1970s and Ouellet says around 40 per cent of their water mains are still made of that material. They have been working since 2006 to replace them, but it’s only at a rate of around two kilometres per year.
“We still have a long way to go to replace them all,” Ouellet adds.
Mayor Andrew Leblanc thanked the residents for attending the Town Council to present their concerns. He expects this will be included during fall budget deliberations.
