Big Brother and Water don't mix!

Tuesday's 4/17 council meeting was an interesting meeting. First we approved congregate care and assisted living facilities in the OMB zone. Parcels that are close to Parkland Hospital. This makes sense as the facilities will have water and sewer and be close-by to the hospital. This will also bring in additional tax revenues that should help relieve some tax burden on us single family home owners who shoulder much of this burden now. The final vote for approval was 5-2 with Councilors Coyle and Fairbanks voting in the negative.

Next up was the interesting part of the evening as on the agenda we had a proposed ordinance for well water. The idea that was presented by staff was to create stricter guidelines that would apply to developers of new sub-divisions. The reasoning was that some parts of the town have had water problems and well problems and that by creating more housing in the general area- it may in fact draw down less water for surrounding, already established neighborhoods.

In the new regulations, you must show a 4 gallon a minute flow.
You must also follow EPA standards for drinkable water and show test results complying to such standards ie.. bacteria levels, coliform, arsenic, these are primary testing qualities however tests for Radon and MBTE as such would be a very costly test and would for sure bring up the cost to the developer and then obviously to the buyers. I had some concerns about this and expressed them at the meeting.

Next to question was Kevin- He had some concerns but then made the statement that it would not be fair to make developers alone follow this rule and he thought everyone with a well should need to follow the new rules as well - including anyone who needed to drill for a new well to replace an older well or to upgrade to a better type well.

I thought about what Kevin was saying and said to myself- He is being sarcastic and was trying to make a point. He did not like this ordinance as well, but from here it got even crazier.

Brent (newest councilor) and Janet both agreed that everyone with a well should follow the new rules and they thought Kevin's idea was the way to go.

At this time, I started to cringe and thought to myself this is Big Brother trying to tell citizens when and how and how much water they should have. ( A very dangerous proposition) Sort of like the new seatbelt law or helmet law. We should educate not mandate!!!

Lets remember a few things here #1- Land owners have rights in this country including Derry#2- Adding more government bureaucracy is NOT a good thing! #3 EPA standards are for more than 10 people on any one water system. individual well owners have NO regulations on them - But some councilors want that to happen!! Can you say LAWSUIT!!!

I'm 100% against this because it simply does not make sense and smacks completely against property owners rights and is an insult to citizens everywhere.

Can you imagine being told you can not live in your home because the town says you don't produce enough water- Is your requirement of water the same as your neighbors?
I recommend you call your councilors and tell them to stop this silliness today!!

For more info on EPA water issues check out this link below
www.epa.gov/safewater/