Well Water Not Allowed For Quispamsis Car Wash

Plans by a Quispamsis car wash to use well water rather than continuing to import it have all but dried up.

On Tuesday night, council voted 3-2 against a request by Wash 66 to change the water source for its operations.

Wash 66 has been trucking in thousands of litres of water every week since it first opened on Pettingill Road in May 2019.

But Dr. Jeff Sheppard, who owns the family business, sought an amendment to his development agreement to use drilled wells instead.

A two-hour virtual public hearing in May saw many residents raise concerns about the impact the change could have on their water supply.

“When the car wash was initially approved, the condition was that the water would be trucked. I would not have approved the car wash if I wasn’t assured that the water would be trucked,” said Coun. Beth Thompson, one of three councillors to vote against the amendment.

The original development between Wash 66 and the town allowed for the business to apply for permission to change the water source, as long as a full comprehensive hydrogeological study was completed.

Dwight Colbourne, the town’s municipal planning officer, said the study found there was “sufficient water” to support the operations of the car wash.

“In fact, the sustainable yield was 11 times what would be required,” Colbourne told council during Tuesday’s meeting.

Colbourne said the town worked with Fundy Engineering Ltd. to come up with several safeguards, such as requiring two 90-day studies during the summer and winter months, which coincide with the typical low precipitation and recharge periods.

“If that report comes back after the study and shows there’s a downward trend, basically if the groundwater isn’t recharging and isn’t coming back up to sufficient levels, there is a requirement for use of the wells to cease and return to water imports,” he said.

Other mitigating measures would have included the ability to see how much water the car wash was using each month, something Colbourne said the town does not currently do for other commercial operations which use well water. There would also have been a cap on how much water the car wash could have used each day.

Coun. Sean Luck, one of two councillors to vote in favour of the amendment, compared the car wash operation to a residential development on Merritt Hill which also uses wells.

“There’s a multitude of residences there that are drawing probably the same amount of water that this car wash is going to be drawing. I find it hard to believe that we can approve a development like that and not approve the current development just for the sake that it’s a car wash versus people living and overlooking the water,” said Luck.

“People buy a car, they want to do preventative maintenance, they want to wash the car. Far be it from me to stop someone from doing that if the water is there and the amounts are there that dictates that they can. It’s no different than someone going to the Tim Hortons. Maybe I don’t like coffee but they’re using one heck of a lot of water there.”

Deputy Mayor Libby O’Hara, who voted against the amendment, argued that only 1.5 to two per cent of the Earth’s water is consumable potable water.

“The apartment building, that water is being consumed by human beings,” said O’Hara. “To use this resource to wash cars when it’s in the middle of a subdivision, I think you struggle with that.”