Judge sides with rural residents fighting to keep taps turned on
Emma Smith | CBC News | Posted: July 26, 2018 4:48 PM | Last Updated: July 26, 2018
Three families in Colchester County were sent disconnection letters last year
Homeowners along a rural highway near Tatamagouche, N.S., have won a small victory against a local utility trying to turn off their taps, but they say the water woes are far from over.
In March 2017, Tatamagouche Water Utility notified three households on Highway 246 that they'd be disconnected from the main system because of issues with low or non-existent water pressure.
They're the only homes hooked up to the line, which was installed in the mid-1990s.
When Tammie and Blake Wall got the disconnect notice, they filed a complaint with the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board, arguing the utility can't simply abandon a line without approval from the UARB.
Justice David Farrar upheld that view in a Nova Scotia Court of Appeal decision released Wednesday.
But while Chris MacLean, the Wall's neighbour, says it's a positive step, the real problem hasn't been fixed.
"No one's accepted responsibility or that they're going to fix it or anything like that," he said. "All they've determined from all this back and forth for a year and a half is that the county utility should have asked permission."
Crawford Macpherson, director of community development with the municipality, said the utility won't comment or discuss next steps until it's had time to review the decision.
Water shut off during shower
The water line on the rural highway was installed in 1995 thanks to a community fundraiser for Blake Wall's mother, according to court documents. She needed a steady flow of water to her house so she could receive kidney dialysis at home.
What began as a single home's water line eventually become a neighbourhood line as others connected to it.
But it wasn't until the Walls built a new home on the property in 2014 that problems with water pressure arose, according to MacLean.
He said when the other families on the street use water, it doesn't just slow down his home's flow; it stops it altogether.
Our kids would be in the shower with shampoo in their hair and the water would just shut off. - Chris MacLean, homeowner
"It had a tremendous impact on us to the point where our kids would be in the shower with shampoo in their hair and the water would just shut off," MacLean said.
He wants the municipality to construct a larger line that can properly supply homes in the area.
Instead, court documents show the director of public works, Michelle Newell, suggested alternatives, such as paying for a storage tank or drilling a new well.
"They presented us with a number of options at their expense but none of which that we found satisfactory," MacLean said.
The Walls declined to be interviewed, but Tammie Wall said in a Facebook message to CBC News that her family is still having issues and must conserve water.
"It has been a long and extremely stressful two years," she wrote. "Unfortunately, I realize that our issue remains unresolved and fully expect future stress."
Who owns the water line?
The Public Utilities Act states that no public utility can abandon a line, or part of a line, without written consent from the UARB.
The utility said it had the right to disconnect the MacLean and Wile's line because it was a private line, but MacLean doesn't buy that argument.
"At no time was I made aware by the utility that this could ever be a potential issue," MacLean said. "I just paid my bill every month and never had a problem with it and they gladly took my money every month."
The appeal judge agreed.
"At no time did the Utility suggest that it was not responsible for the water line or that the Walls or MacLeans bore the cost of any solution," Farrar wrote in his decision. "The correspondence suggested the contrary — the Utility would be responsible for the cost to rectify the problem."
MacLean said the worst part has been the tension it's caused among neighbours.
"Through no fault of theirs or ours, it was just a stressful situation for a period of time and could have all been avoided," he said.