The Town of Antigonish continues to deal with unfavourable water levels at the James River Dam due to dry weather over the summer.
To combat this problem head on, the community is set to implement a mandatory water conservation order. This means residents and businesses will not be permitted to use water for gardening, washing driveways or vehicles, or filling swimming pools until the water levels return to normal. “Anytime water stops spilling over James River Dam we will implement voluntary water conservation measures, if the water drops a metre below the top of the dam we will implement mandatory water conservation measures, those plans were submitted and approved by the Department of the Environment.” Says Town CAO Jeff Lawrence. Water can still be used for cooking and for doing laundry.
Within the limits of Antigonish, these new measures will be enforced by the towns by law officers and people that fail to comply will be given a warning for their first offence, otherwise they risk having their water service disconnected if they continue to violate the measures. According to the Towns website they have worked with the Municipality of the County of Antigonish to create a water conservation strategy that utilizes the counties wells. These wells provide a supplemental supply of water, but they do not have the capacity to replace the water supply for Antigonish or the fringe areas.
The town would like to thank everyone for their cooperation, and they will continue to monitor the water storage levels. The mandatory water conservation order is set to come into effect at 4:30 tomorrow afternoon.
