Piped water turned down

Press, 19 October 1976, Page 2

Piped water turned down

A recommendation from the council’s Lincoln Advisory Committee that steps be taken without delay to provide a piped water-supply for the township was not accepted by the Ellesmere County Council yesterday. Lincoln residents recently voted against having a piped supply, but the committee reported to the council that the poll should be disregarded, as the voters had not been given full information.

The chairman (Mr W. E.! Walker) said that he did not “go for pressure from people trying to bring everythmg to a head in a few minutes.” Mr Walker said Lincoln people could work things out for themselves. A group was trying to frighten everybody when the facts had been there for some time. Reference was also made to a recent analysis which showed a high health hazard in the amount of nitrate nitrogen found in water from shallow wells at Lincoln. The health inspector (Mr! V. M. Challies) said that bacteriological analysis of Lin-! coin well water had been done for some years, and no evidence of contamination had been found. “So far as is known, there have been no outbreaks of sickness related to water supplies in the township,” said Mr Challies. "Therefore, there has been no previous concern over the quality of well! water.”

He said the testing by Lincoln College of water from shallow wells had shown high nitrate nitrogen levels, and this would be investigated further. The advisory committee

asked the council to plan for a supply of water drawn from a depth of not less than 40 metres, and with a nitrate nitrogen content less than 20 per cent by the World Health Organisation minimum.

The council also decided not to. approve of any more scheme plans for subdivisions of residential land at Lincoln until it has studied the potential overloading of the Lincoln sewerage scheme, brought about by the growth of Lincoln College and the township. Mr C. E. F. Brownie waited on the council and asked for an exemption in his case, as the council had approved of his 20-section subdivision, he had incurred expense, and was ready to go ahead. The request was declined. The County Engineer (Mr G. L. Tapper) said four or five other subdivisions known to the council, were involved. There was likely to be a delay in the council being told by the Regional Water Board of acceptable treatment plant effluent discharge standards. The County Clerk (Mr G. R. Singleton) was asked to report on the practicability ■of establishing a community i council for Lincoln.