Boil water order in Lake Echo in its eighth month
CBC News
Posted: Aug 31, 2012 8:03 PM AT
Last Updated: Aug 31, 2012 9:39 PM AT
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A boil water order that has been affecting a Lake Echo trailer park, continues. (CBC)People living in a large trailer park in Lake Echo have been under a boil water order for eight months, and it doesn't look like it will be lifted any time soon.
People who live in the 353 mobile homes in Mountain View Estates are fed up with the problem and are asking why it isn't fixed.
Tonia LeBlanc has been raising her seven month old twin boys without clean water.
"Having twins is a lot of work and having to boil our water to make formula, for baths, anything to do with them, to make cereal — it's a lot of extra work which is not what I need right now," says LeBlanc.
Complicating LeBlanc's worries is the health of one of her twin boys. Matthew is undergoing dialysis treatments.
"He has a tube in his belly. It's always covered but when we're giving him baths and stuff we always make sure we boil it a couple of times to make sure it's good and clean so no infections get in there," she says.
Water is included in the lease agreement with Killam Properties, the operators of the park.
The Department of Environment issued the boil water order because there are high levels of particles in water drawn from a small, shallow lake.
Jackie LaVallee, of Killam Properties, says four new wells have been drilled but are not hooked up yet.
"We had to have the wells drilled and we had to get special permits to move the drilling rigs in the winter because there is a winter ban on highways and pump tests, they take a certain amount of time," she says.
Residents in the trailer park say they aren't impressed with the delays. After eight months, they just want their water back to where it should be.
"We have to boil our water, we can't drink it," says park resident Amanda Crooks. "We gotta watch when we bath the kids, that they don't get it in their mouth."
Many people in the park are buying bottled water, others like Chris Ottaway have purchased their own filtration systems.
"It's cheaper than buying bottled water every day," says Ottaway. "It's kind of hard to boil that amount of drinking water every single day and what not."
It will be a couple of more months before the wells are hooked up to the park's water supply, meaning the tedious task of boiling water will continue.
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