A group of Hamilton residents say they’ve been left desperate and frustrated by a city roadwork project and their problem goes far beyond driving around construction tie ups.
They say they’ve been left without their regular water supply for months and last week it got worse.
For the past few days, Terry and Christeen Baker had no running water at their home on Springbrook Avenue.
“We were not able to shower, wash dishes, flush toilets and couldn’t wash my son’s school uniforms,” Christeen said.
“Its just too much to have us sit here through our Christmas holidays again with a garden hose. We can’t have our neighbourhood get-togethers that we like to have every year.”
The garden hose solution eventually worked with the right insulation and the water was back on Wednesday but the Bakers and their neighbours are running out of patience.
They say the problem started last summer with work on Garner Road.
The construction company pumped out groundwater to lower the level of the underground water table for pipe installation.
But the Bakers and some other neighbours use wells and their wells have dried up.
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“When they started working out here, that’s when we started experiencing problems,” Terry said. “In August, we were actually empty and the neighbours started going dry too right beside us.”
Neighbour, Frank Rocchi, has been supplying the garden hose water and says it’s not a problem.
Residents say he’s been turning down their offer to help pay the higher water bill.
Rocchi says the city hasn’t handled this well, adding that the houses have been provided with cisterns but they quickly turned into huge ice blocks.
“It’s awful, awful. In this day and age how can you not provide water for people, aside from putting a stupid cistern that freezes up,” Rocchi said. “ It’s just been terrible for them.”
The residents have other concerns like a traffic nightmare in front of Rocchi’s house.
Some have concerns that low water levels are killing trees and resident, Steve Allen, worries his well water may not come back.
“They knew that they were going to be de-watering and pumping out ground water here. They should have had a better idea of how it was going to affect people around,” Allen said.
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“I’ve got a young daughter, she’s a year and a half old and so not able to give her baths, not able to do that at all,” he said. “It’s just been frustrating.”
In a statement to CHCH News, Ed English, the City of Hamilton’s manager of engineering services, said: “Groundwater pumping ensures active construction sites are safe and secure from flooding, but wells drying up can be an unintended outcome of groundwater pumping. The city will work closely with property owners to ensure any issues can be addressed as quickly as possible.”
The folks on Springbrook Avenue say they don’t have much confidence so far.
Ancaster Coun. Craig Cassar said he hadn’t been made aware that the roadwork could lead to the kind of water problems they’re facing.
He says it’s not acceptable for these residents to be left without water and he’ll be asking the city to do something about this and will be following it up.
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