Uranium levels a setback for Bridgetown

By Carolyn Sloan

Spectator

NovaNewsNow.com

By December, Bridgetown council will likely find out whether they can use existing wells or whether they will have to drill for ground water in another location. Either way, setbacks to the water project have meant that the town will not have a water supply in compliance by April 1st, 2008, when the new Canadian drinking water quality guidelines take effect.

After speaking with Nova Scotia Environment and Labour, the town’s CAO John Langmead reported that the department is prepared to work with all municipalities in the province that are having difficulty making the April 1 deadline, and thus, that the town would not likely be penalized.

It was March of 2006 that the town drilled a test well and two potential production wells on a property north of the Adult Residential Centre on Church Street. At the time, a series of pump tests revealed that there was a sufficient quantity and quality of water. However, pump tests done in June 2007, after two of the wells were reamed out and screened for production revealed a uranium count that was above the provincial standard. In September, the council investigated the costs of treating the uranium, as well as bringing their current surface water supply into compliance.

At the September 24 meeting of council, mayor Art Marshall told councillors that the high costs of either filtering for uranium or resorting to a surface water system, made both options unappealing. As such, the town has been advised to either fix the wells they have now or find another source of water. “Surface water is just too expensive to try to put in a system that will meet with regulatory standards,” Langmead explained following the meeting.

He adds that surface water systems are ill advised as surface water regulations are likely to change in the near future and continue to change as years go by.

The next step is to do a test on the monitoring well to see if uranium levels have stayed the same since the last tests in June. If the levels are unchanged, then the town will conduct a Packer Test to try to remedy the two production wells. If that fails, then a new source of water with less uranium will be needed.