Piped water scheme proposed for Lincoln

Press, 17 July 1979, Page 3

Piped water scheme proposed for Lincoln

Plans for a $308,000: domestic water reticulation! scheme have been drawn up! for Lincoln township, where; many of the domestic wells have been deemed possible

health hazards. 1 However, resistance to a < piped water supply — the townspeople opposed such < an installation in a referendum three years ago — may : complicate its introduction, as the local authority has no ! power to insist that existing 1 households be connected. 1 Indeed, under present legislation, it is possible that; 1 no existing householder! would join, although house-‘I

; holders can be rated at half I the cost applicable to con- ; nected dwellings. The local ; authority, in this instance the Ellesmere County Council, can and already has

begun to insist that new dwellings be connected. The scheme, which was described at a meeting of the council yesterday, is designed to cater for an eventual Lincoln population of 2000. This figure is expected to be reached by the year 2000. The present population is , believed to be about 950, but I it is hard to assess because the township acts as a dor-

mitory for the nearby agricultural college and research establishments. Some estimates of the present population have been as high as 1200.

Water samples taken from wells in Lincoln during the last eight years have shown nitrate concentrations higher than the limits recommended by the United States Public Health Service and the World Health Organisation, and have shown, too, that the levels appear to be increasing. High nitrate levels in drinking water are dangerous to infants; they may cause impairment of the body’s ability to transport oxygen to the brain and tissues. In this respect high nitrate levels do not affect adults, but intensive research is being done overseas into the possibility that they may cause stomach cancer.

The potential danger exists only in shallow wells (those less than 25m deep) (and the council intends that (the Lincoln reticulation be (drawn from a well 38m deep in Kildare Terrace. The capital costs for the scheme have been estimated at $308,080, which would attract a Health Department subsidy of $7641, leaving $300,439 to be found by the Ellesmere County Council. The annual running costs are expected to be $6314. Tentative figures based on an assumption that all existing households would join the scheme indicate an additional rating of between $172 and $ll9 a household a year, depending on whether loan money for the work is raised over 10 or 30 years. !The cost would increase in proportion to the number of households which stayed on their existing well supply. The council will send the proposed scheme to the Lincoln Advisory Committee for (comment before proceeding further.