Holyrood faced water shortages in weeks before fire

By Craig Westcott

Even before the outbreak of the forest fire in Holyrood on August 4, the town, like many in the province this summer, was dealing with a water shortage and had implemented a conservation order. But Holyrood’s situation was further complicated by one of its eight artesian wells going down.
The details of the situation were explained at last month’s public council meeting, which occurred less than two weeks before the conflagration that resulted in evacuation orders for some residents and a prolonged fight by local, regional and provincial fire crews to control the blaze, which was located near Green Acres, about two kilometres from NL Hydro’s thermal generating station.
The chairperson of Holyrood’s public works committee, councillor Steve Winsor, outlined the extent of “our water woes, as I’ll call it,” and how they impacted the town earlier this summer.
“The issues we recently experienced were not unique to our town,” Winsor stressed. “Our neighbours in CBS also experienced a higher water usage – 15 to 20 per cent higher than their normal summer average, in fact. They assessed their infrastructure for leaks, and they have a more sophisticated system than we do… They were able to identify there were no significant leaks, so their 20 per cent increase in usage was deemed to be driven by the unseasonably high hot summer temperatures and dry spell. And that’s no different for us… We experienced the same hot weather and lack of rainfall. But unfortunately we also had some equipment reliability problems compounding that problem.”
Winsor noted Holyrood’s eight artesian wells pump water to a holding tank by George Cove Mountain, which in turn supplies the town’s homes and businesses.
“Each well has a different production rate,” Winsor said. “We’re actually fortunate that this particular well that we had a problem with wasn’t one of the more prolific producers, because it could have been a lot worse.”
The problem was with the well on Liam Hickey Drive. The other wells are located at the swimming park, three at the ballfield, O’Connell’s in North Arm, and Healey’s and Quinlan’s wells in Woodford Station.
“They all vary in production rates ranging from two gallons per minute to a combined, at the ball field, of over 100 gallons per minute,” Winsor said. “The one on Liam Hickey Drive produces normally 16 – 17 gallons a minute… In late June, that well was not producing water at its normal rate.”
So, staff decided to replace the pump, which after 15 years in place, was at the end of its service life, Winsor said.
Unfortunately, the pump, “which is very expensive and not something we would normally hold in the Town’s inventory,” had to be ordered in from outside the province, and when it showed up, proved to be the wrong one, said Winsor.
Council also had to hire a drilling company with a boom truck and the know-how to remove and replace the pump located 200 feet below ground. Squires Drilling took the contract and installed a temporary loaner pump of a lower capacity from its own stock to tide the Town over until the right pump arrived.
Meanwhile, Winsor added, because of the hot dry conditions, the Town was experiencing a bigger draw on its water than normal. It had gone from 8,500 to 17,000 gallons a day to 34,000 – 42,000 gallons a day. “That’s two and a half times the normal usage,” Winsor said, noting the water in the tank reached its lowest point in some time.
“The repairs at Liam Hickey Drive were lengthy,” Winsor added. “It was a big job. We did suffer another setback when the temporary pump malfunctioned and separated from the casing on Sunday, July 13.”
The next day, Holyrood council implemented a water ban.
“We had already been advising to conserve water during the hot weather, but now with all this information stacking up and we were going down to a concerning level in that tank, we had to institute a water ban,” said Winsor. “And as councillor Sadie King pointed out, nobody was without water for daily activities.”
Immediately after the new proper pump was installed on July 19, water levels started going back up, Winsor said. Once the levels stabilize, he added, council will consider lifting the ban.
The Town also checked its 152 fire hydrants and repaired one at Woodford Station that was found to be leaking.
“We were all very lucky that we were able to manage and control the situation,” Winsor said. “Residents have water for all their necessary daily activities. There was inconvenience by not being able to wash your vehicle, water your lawns or fill up or top up your pools… In terms of emergency response and safety readiness for fire suppression, the pumpers were full, the fire department had the ability, as they always do, to draw from natural water sources like the rivers, there was backup support from other aid stations in neighbouring communities, so our fire department and council had an action plan in place in case of an emergency fire, if we got into a situation where we didn’t have enough water in that tank.”
Winsor thanked staff for working so hard, including after hours, throughout the problems with the well and pumps, even while the summer Squidfest festival was happening. He thanked residents too for abiding by the water ban rules.
“Most residents respected our request for help during this time, and that’s why we succeeded,” he said. “Going forward, we do have many improvements that have been in the works for a long time, and they are coming for our water system infrastructure.”
Among the improvements is a much bigger water tank that will be installed at George Cove Mountain next year. Council is also considering hiring a company to explore the potential for more wells.
Mayor Gary Goobie also thanked the staff and residents for their patience and cooperation.
“Nobody would ever know what was going on (behind the scenes) during this time,” said Goobie. “We were briefed on a regular basis… If that pump had to go in the middle of the winter, it wouldn’t be a problem… We haven’t had an issue with that tank for a long while… Thankfully we never had to deal with any forest fires, we didn’t have to deal with any structure fires, or anything like that that could have compromised to a certain level the water that we had left.”
Goobie asked residents to continue being careful with their water usage.
“Keep in mind that our water is chlorinated, and that comes with a cost,” he said. “So, is it really urgent for the rest of the summer to go out and pressure wash your driveway? That’s not really a necessity. Or washing your car twice a week when you can do it once a week? Use water wisely and that will help out and get us through the summer and hopefully avoid any potential problems that could happen later on in the summertime.”
Deputy Mayor Michelle Woodford said there were some people who were concerned about the water ban.
“If anyone has been following what we’ve been doing over the years, we’ve been trying to come up with solutions to our water issues, and we’ve been on a great track,” said Woodford. “So, kudos to everyone around the table, as the mayor said, to our public works staff, to our staff who’ve been up late at night, and councillors who have been involved as well. Hopefully this is just a little hiccup, and we’ll move on from that.”