Lawrencetown, Middleton get water funding

By Lawrence Powell

The Spectator

NovaNewsNow.com

Residents of Lawrencetown and Middleton will be drinking better water thanks to almost $800,000 in funding through the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund.

The Village of Lawrencetown will receive $550,755 to help replace existing wells, while Middleton is getting $223,407 to purchase chlorinating equipment.

“These projects result in more than 1,100 families having improved drinking water – water that will meet the new provincial guidelines which are based on the best drinking water standards in the country,” said Nova Scotia’s Environment Minister Mark Parent who made the funding announcement April 21 in Lawrencetown on behalf of Jamie Muir, Service Nova Scotia minister.

“Through these two investments of more than $258,000, our government is working with residents of South Western Nova Scotia to improve the quality and reliability of our drinking water,” said Senator Gerald Comeau on behalf of ACOA minister Peter MacKay.

The provincial contribution is just over $250,000 with the town and the village paying one-third of their respective projects.

“Federal, provincial, and municipal governments have been working together to address drinking water and water treatment issues not only here, but right across Nova Scotia,” said Comeau. “programs such as the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund play such a vital role as we work to protect and promote a clean environment.”

“The safety and quality of our drinking water is a definite concern for all Canadians,” said Vera Errington, deputy mayor of Middleton. “We take our water for granted. We turn on the tap and it’s there. We rarely think about the technology that is required to make sure our municipal water supply is safe.”

She said it can be daunting for a small town to find the capital required for infrastructure, adding that the infrastructure fund is critical.

“Along with an investment by the town, this money will be used to install a chlorine contact chamber at our pump station,” she said, explaining that the new equipment will allow water from town wells to have longer contact with the chlorine before it hits homes on the system.

She said the town will also purchase a computerized water monitoring system to replace the existing outdated manual one.

“This will allow staff to monitor the water and make adjustments to our water supply remotely by computer,” Errington said.

Lawrencetown village commission chair Lynette Gilks hosted the announcement ceremony, and said she hopes the village’s new well will provide arsenic-free drinking water for future generations of villagers.

“I want to thank my fellow commissioners for their work on our behalf,” said Gilks. “We are all volunteers who give of our time to make Lawrencetown a great place to live and work.”

She urged all levels of government to realize that water utilities are only safe if the people who operate them are trained and conscientious. She said Lawrencetown has been lucky in that regard and thanked superintendent of works David Leonard and his predecessor Eric Slauenwhite.