Under boil order again, Alma finds need for water fix becoming urgent

Every summer, thousands of tourists spill out of Fundy National Park and into the tiny coastal village of Alma, at its eastern gate, to quench their thirst, satisfy their hunger and answer the call of nature.

They're a boon to the local economy, but they take a toll on the municipal water system.

"We have a system that was, at the time when it was installed, not designed for other than residential," said Mayor Kirstin Shortt.

"I guess they never expected that tourism would have such an impact on our community."

Alma's resident population is about 250, but on a busy day in summer there can be an influx of 3,000 tourists.

• Alma frustrated with never-ending boil water order

The village's most recent boil order began Aug. 4, when the computer monitoring system picked up spikes in turbidity, said Shortt.

It was a bit of a disappointment after spending about $70,000 last year on upgrades to the well house and the supervisory control and data acquisition, or SCADA, system.

"We were hoping that the computer system could manipulate some of the flow of the water but the August weekend just proved a bit too much stress on the system," she said.

The previous boil order lasted 11 months to allow for system upgrades, but the village has had shorter boil orders almost every summer since Shortt became mayor in 2012. They usually start on the August long weekend, which is the busiest time for local tourism.

It was all new this season for Jeremy Wilbur, who now owns and manages a restaurant in Alma called Tipsy Tails.

"It was super stressful," Wilbur said. "But now, you get into a rhythm and it just sort of works itself out."

Wilbur said the restaurant hasto pre-boil all the water used for cooking and use packaged water for some things. It's more expensive, takes longer to prepare and makes it a challenge to maintain quality and consistency.

"They just need to get some sort of water tower and proper treatment going," he said.

Alma currently gets its water from an artesian well. Problems start when it's continuously pumped for an extended period, said the mayor.

The turbidity, or hazecaused by solids suspended in the water, is not even noticeable in a glass of water, according to Shortt, and is not a serious threat to water quality on its own, but sediment increases the risk of attracting other contaminants.

Finding a secondary water source is an important project for the village, she said.

"Oh, extremely. I mean, we need it. There's no doubt about it. Sustainability is what we're looking for. Our tourism isn't going to reduce. It's going to increase. And we need to be ready for when the Fundy Trail opens up. Right now with this system we're not ready. So we need this done within the next 12 months or 18 months."

Shortt expectsa new program will be available this fall, which would see the federal government pay 60 per cent of the cost of the work, the provincial government 33 per cent, and the municipality the remaining seven per cent.

She said she was meeting with Bill Fraser, the provincial minister of transportation and infrastructure, to discuss the situation, and also has meetings scheduled with officials from the departments ofhealth and environment and local government.

There were onlya couple of spikes in turbidity in the past week, Shortt said, but the boil order may remain in place until after Labour Day.