West Saint John residents are calling on their councillors to host a town hall ahead of a water system switchover.
The project will connect some west side residents to the newly-built Loch Lomond Drinking Water Treatment Facility due to lower than expected water levels in the South Bay Wellfield.
Saint John Water says it hopes to have the new pumping system commissioned and in service sometime in February. Water Commissioner Brent McGovern says their goal is February 12th.
West-sider Pamela Ross says despite a recent update from the city, they still have plenty of questions.
“Many of the people here feel that a supportive town hall meeting would be a great benefit,” she said.
Ross says many residents had water softeners installed to deal with the hardness of the well water.
But she says now the city is asking them to have the softeners removed, a process she and a lot of others have questions about.
“For those of us like myself who have nobody to rely on to do these things, I’ll have to hire a plumber to come in. I worry about my warranty if I was to have somebody else actually bypass that valve,” she said.
“A lot of questions pertaining to water softeners. A lot of people want to sell their water softeners when we’re having officials tell us no, don’t sell them,” she said.
She says they’re also concerned about the amount of orthophosphate that will be going into their water during the transition.
She also is worried that this won’t be a permanent fix for residents and that they’ll be dealing with more transitions in the future.
“This isn’t a guarantee that we’ll be staying off well water,” she said.
Ross says she’s working closely with Councillors Greg Norton and Blake Armstrong to set a date for the meeting and hopes to announce it soon.
Both Norton and Armstrong have yet to return requests for comments on the concerns.
