Yarmouth laundromat booming because of dry Nova Scotia weather
'I’m going to have the biggest water bill in the neighbourhood,' says owner of K.D. Wash and Dry Laundry
The dry weather in southwestern Nova Scotia is leading to a flood of new business for a laundromat in Yarmouth.
Kathy Lee Boudreau opened K.D. Wash and Dry Laundry last year and had a good year, but it's booming this year.
"Couldn't ask for better," she said.
She said customers are coming from far away as Shelburne, Barrington, Clark's Harbour and Saulnierville because they don't have enough water at their homes to do their laundry.
Boudreau said people are dropping by with big loads to minimize the amount of trips they need to make.
Expensive water bill
One of the downsides of the thriving business will be the laundromat's water bills.
"With the shortness of water, I bet you I'm going to have the biggest water bill in the neighbourhood by the time this drought is done, but that's fine," said Boudreau.
The southwestern part of Nova Scotia saw its driest June and July since 1880, CBC meteorologist Kalin Mitchell said in August. The region normally gets just shy of 200 millimetres of rain during those two months. This year, Yarmouth County only saw 67 millimetres.
Guy Surette, a councillor in the Municipality of the District of Argyle, said he will propose at the council meeting on Tuesday that a new community well be drilled in Tusket to help people facing water shortages.
Surette estimates that one in 20 households have had trouble getting water this summer. He said that's a huge number considering the whole municipality only has about 8,000 people.
He thinks the well will cost $4,000 to drill.
'We have to do something'
Aldric d'Entremont is the local warden. He said that while the municipality has provided about 900 four-litre jugs of drinking water to residents as part of its measures to help residents, it recognizes that more has to be done.
"It's a serious problem for a lot of people," he said.
D'Entremont said he spoke with some residents who've been in their homes for 45 years, but haven't run out of water — until now.
"It's something we haven't seen, I guess, in about 135 years," he said.
With files from Stéphanie Blanchet and Olivier Lefebvre