Tantramar’s town engineer says Sackville residents who are on the municipal water system should be cautious about how much they use as the current drought continues.

At the same time, Jon Eppell says he’s confident there’s enough water to conduct water-main flushing beginning on October 6th.

“If we could defer this for a year or two we would do so, but it is necessary to do it,” he said during Monday’s Tantramar council meeting.

“If we don’t flush the pipes, we get build-up on the inside of the pipe and sometimes that can break free and then discolour water at undetermined times and cause water quality concerns,” Eppell added.

“The data that we have from Sackville water well number three is that the water levels and the recovery time for that well have remained consistent since the beginning of July,” he told council.

“So we’re confident that we have the water in the aquifer in order to proceed with the unidirectional flushing despite the dry weather that we’ve had.”

During the public question period, Eppell explained that well number three has water-level sensors that have been in place for some time, while sensors were installed only recently in wells one and two and aren’t active yet.

“So, I don’t have levels for those two, but I do have it for well three and because I had good historical data for well three, I was able to rely on that information.”

Eppell also reported that workers have cleaned out one of two big lagoons in a fenced-in area near the water treatment plant.

At least once every day, water is blasted through huge filters inside the plant to clear them of manganese, iron and other particles.

The water is then discharged into one of the lagoons where the solids settle to the bottom.

“Every once in a while, we have to go and empty those out,” he explained.

“That material gets put up to the side and is allowed to dry and settle and then eventually, we take it and dispose of it offsite.”

In July, Eppell arranged a media tour of the Sackville water system. To read my report on it, click here.