BEAVER BANK: The provincial government is looking at tabling new legislation that would force developers to perform water supply surveys ahead of residential construction.
Inadequate water supply is a problem all too familiar for residents in the Monarch-Rivendale subdivision in Beaver Bank. They have been faced with challenges as their wells run dry. They only recently won their battle to bring city water to the sub-division, although it came with a price tag of about $5.5 million. That works out to about $17,500 per regular lot, with flag-lot owners facing a bill that’s just a bit higher.
Part of the problem for residents was no hydro-geological drilling or testing was done on the land by the property developer prior to homes being built. Historically, there has been no requirement for this type of work. The situation has left residents to struggle through fundamental water shortages, such as not being able to take a bath or flush the toilet for days on end.
District 2 Councillor Barry Dalrymple highlighted the troubles in a motion put to HRm regional council that calls on the province to grant municipalities the power to compel developers to perform hydro-geological surveys.
“The new law should prevent other residents in HRM from experiencing the same stress and extreme difficulty the residents of Monarch-Rivendale have been facing for the past number of years,” said Brad Conrad, chairman of the Monarch-Rivendale Community Association. “The new law will hopefully also prevent others from being saddled with a huge bill to fix an issue that should have never been allowed to happen in the first place. Given the situation we have been faced with in our community, I fully support this new legislation and believe it is move in the right direction.”
Hydro-geological testing involves evaluating potential wastewater disposal alternatives, developing loading depths and application rates for spray irrigation systems, wetland mitigation projects and water supply development.
Conrad said residents should be proud that the situation they faced won’t be endured by others once the new legislation is passed and becomes law.
“I’m pleased the concerns of our residents have been taken into consideration, but, more importantly, I’m happy to know the changes tabled in the Legislature will ensure other residents won’t have to go through the same pain the residents in our community have had to endure,” Conrad explained.
Dalrymple said when he began with the Monarch-Rivendale water issues, many of its residents had questions for him. Those concerns ranged from how a subdivision could run out of water and why government and the developers, Ramar Construction in Monarch-Rivendale’s case, didn’t know in advance.
“The answer was that the HRM was not allowed to ask for or even use water testing as part of the information to look at when development requests came in,” Dalrymple said. “Roger Wells, HRM Senior Planner and the project leader for Monarch-Rivendale, explained to me that our department and planners have wanted this for years but no one was ever really willing to take it forward. I advised him I most certainly was as the kind of situation that occurred there (and in many other areas of our district) should never have been allowed to happen.”
He said the planning department did up the necessary background information and request and he made the motion to HRM council to send it forward to the province asking that in the future HRM be allowed to ask for hydro-geological testing for water supplies before approval is given for new subdivisions.
“I'm sure this will have an impact around the province,” Dalrymple said. “This authority will certainly give HRM planners and residents another tool to safeguard existing residents and help prevent water issues in certain areas in the future.”
Wells said the municipality has been trying to bring in legislation related to hydro-geological surveying for several years without much luck.
‘We will be able to tailor the density of the development or the number of lots to the sustainability of the ground water supply,” said Wells. “It’s a good piece of legislation.”
For their part, Ramar supports the testing requirement.
“It’s something we’ve discussed for awhile,” Ben Young, chief operating officer with Ramar, told a Halifax-based media outlet. “We’re trying to make improvements to the process as we move along.”
Young believes other developers will be fine with the change, as long as the review process done by HRM is quick.
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