Dry weather leads Argyle councillor to call for new community well

A councillor in southern Nova Scotia says the dry weather has led to an emergency situation in his municipality and he's pushing to have a new community well drilled.

Guy Surette, a councillor in the Municipality of the District of Argyle, is proposing drilling the well at the Islands and District Fire Department on Surettes Island.

"We're in an emergency situation right now," he said.

"We dig a well way deeper and then we have water for the fire department of course, but also water for people who'd want to come to use the washrooms, for potable water, and possibly to put showers in there so people can come and use it anytime they want to."

• Argyle residents in 'dire straits' as wells dry up

Proposal before council Tuesday

Surette is going to present his idea to municipal council at their regular meeting on Tuesday. He's received an estimate of $4,000 from d'Entremont's Excavating to drill the new well.

"If the municipality could help in any way provide 50 per cent or the full amount," he said.

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.

'It's so hard without water'

Troy Votour, who lives on SurettesIsland, says hiswell went dry about a month ago.

• Southwestern Nova Scotia seeing driest weather since 1880

He spends about 12 hours a week collecting water just to keep his household running.

"It's been very tough.Basically we're hauling water from town, we're getting neighbours dropping off water even just to flush the toilet and stuff," he said.

"It's so hard without water."

He said the lack of water is getting expensive. He's dishing out cash to pay for bottled water and to eat out more frequently because it's so difficult to cook without water.

'Usually we have an overabundance of water'

Votour said almost every year he watches his neighbour's wells dry up, but his well is extra deep and he never thought he'd run out of water.

"We've always had water. We've never had an issue with water. Usually we have an overabundance of water and a lot of the run off would be going right through our basement. We have a rock foundation and we'd have so much it overflowed."

He said any extra water the municipality could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Votour said he would need five days of constant rain to make his well usable again.