Water woes won’t derail school opening, or affect firefighting, says Holyrood mayor

By Mark Squibb

Holyrood’s summer water woes came to an end of summer climax when half the town’s residences and some of its businesses, including restaurants, were left without water for much of a weekend.

Town staff began noticing in August the community’s water tank seemed to be losing water quicker than usual, however no obvious leaks could be detected.

The Town called in RPM, a Holyrood based company that uses drones and infrared technology to locate leaks.

“They had detected a number of leaks but none that were significant enough to be causing that drop in the tank,” said Crawley. “I think they’ve fixed probably six or seven little leaks now, and we keep finding new issues as we are going… We’re systematically going through every inch of the town and collecting information now, and we know where everything is and what kind of damage has been done.”
Crawley said that starting and stopping water across town to try and isolate the problem caused the pumps to work extra hard, and that one of the pumps was unable to handle the strain and broke down Friday, August 28.

“That was the pump that pressurised all of the south side,” said Crawley. “So, the northside still had water, the town centre still had water – albeit low pressure – but the southside was down.”

Crawley said the Town could not find a pump within the province that fit the specifications and so had to purchase one from New Brunswick.

In the meantime, though, the Town was able to secure a pump from Squires Drilling as a temporary fix.

The pump arrived from New Brunswick and was installed Sunday, and water was soon restored to a all residents across town.

Crawley said the Town shut off water to the entire town once again Sunday night to allow the water tank to refill completely and “give the pumps a bit of a break.”

The Mayor added that as of Monday morning, water pressure across town had returned to normal, although the Town would continue to shut off water on a nightly basis over the next little while to guarantee operations are what they should be. She said the Town will budget for additional flow metres, curb stops, and valves in the next budget.

Meanwhile, staff have called in outside help to monitor the system and review the water monitoring technology.

Crawley said the Town does not have a handle on how much the water woes have cost the town, but added that both the provincial and federal governments will shoulder some of the burden. The mayor expressed her thanks to MHA Barry Petten and MP Paul Connors in particular.

The water outage also forced the last-minute cancellation of the ‘Squidfest Beach Party Goes Country’ concert scheduled for Saturday night, August 29.

The Town posted an update on social media at 10:25 Friday night, noting the concert would be going ahead as it would not require municipal water. However, at 12:51 Saturday afternoon, the Town announced the concert would be cancelled

“Friday night it was on the table, but Friday night we also thought that we had a pump that we thought was going to be able to go in and handle the amount of work needed to service the town,” said Crawley. “By 11:30 we realized that this was going to take longer than we hoped and made the unfortunate call to cancel, which is super disheartening. But we really didn’t want small businesses being closed and then having a big party on the field.”

As to the fire department’s capability to fight fires during water outages, Crawley said residents have nothing to fear. She said the town has mutual aid agreements in place with Harbour Main, Avondale, CBS, and Witless Bay, and the fire department boasts two 1,000-gallon pumper trucks “filled up and ready to go.”

Those trucks, said Crawley, can also pull water from rivers and ponds if need be. NL Hydro has also given the Town permission to tap into it’s water supply in emergency situations.

“Nothing has ever prevented the department from doing their job,” said Crawley. “There are no worries about the fire department’s ability to keep us safe.”

Crawley also didn’t expect the water shut offs to impact the opening of Holy Cross Elementary on September 9.

“We’re really hoping to stay on an ‘eight-to-eight’ schedule,” said the mayor referring to the hours when water will be available during the day. “Keeping water in the tank from eight in the morning to eight in the evening is our goal right now and being able to service the entire town. It looks like we’re on the right track to do that.”

In the event of another unexpected water loss, Crawley said the Town would meet with the school authority and work out a contingency plan together.

“We understand the inconvenience,” said Crawley. “I too live on the southside, and I was without water as well, as with those residents. It’s very frustrating…. However, we are very pleased with how people helped us along the way. We had a water distribution centre set up, and the people who came to pick up water were so kind, and so gracious, and had really nice words of support and encouragement for the staff. Staff are exhausted. Some of our directors and our CAO have been in over 18 hours a day working through all these issues, so to have people show up and give those words of encouragement was energizing, so we appreciate all of that. And we thank residents again for their understanding and patience and hope the residents stick with us while we get it all worked out.”

The Shoreline contacted several businesses in the town which have had to shut down temporarily at times because of the low water pressure, including Tim Horton’s, Wong’s Restaurant, and Mary Brown’s Restaurant, but couldn’t find anyone in a position to comment on the financial impact of the unexpected closures.