Barnstable County Report

Water, Water Everywhere

Water, Water Everywhere

Cape faces water problems down the road

By Peter Kenney

News of a recent E. coli event in a water tank serving the Hyannis Water District has caused some alarm. By all accounts things are well in hand and the danger, what there was of it, has passed. Barnstable Town Council president Janet S. Joakim has posted a very thorough response to the situation and to the many calls and e-mails she received expressing concern.

Hyannis system no stranger to controversy

This is not the first time there have been problems with the public water supply in Hyannis, nor is this the first controversy for the system. There are still political undercurrents swirling around the issue of how much the town of Barnstable paid to purchase the water company from its previous owner, a private company based in Connecticut. And there is a dispute simmering between the Hyannis Fire District and the town over who should pay for what. The town wants the fire district to pay for hydrants and water and the district wants things to remain as they always have. The resolution of this dispute will cost either the fire district and its ratepayers or the water district and its ratepayers more money. Clearly something has changed.

Several years ago an acquaintance told me that his cat would not drink from its water dish. He lived in Hyannis and gave his cat tap water to drink. There had been news of a problem with one of the Hyannis wells, pollution had reached it underground. Efforts were made to treat the contaminated water but the results were unpleasant. They were so unpleasant that even a cat would not drink the water. Several years ago an acquaintance told me that his cat would not drink from its water dish. He lived in Hyannis and gave his cat tap water to drink. There had been news of a problem with one of the Hyannis wells, pollution had reached it underground. Efforts were made to treat the contaminated water but the results were unpleasant. They were so unpleasant that even a cat would not drink the water. In the summer an oily film appeared on the surface of the water in the cat's dish, resembling an oil slick and the water coming from the tap smelled like Love Canal at low tide.

Pay now or pay later

What happened in Hyannis over the past week or so and what has happened in Hyannis off and on for years is not the problem. Voters at Eastham's special town meeting this fall voted down a tax override to fund a more than $80 million public-water-supply project. The project was believed a less expensive solution to the potential for the loss of public and private wells due to groundwater becoming contaminated with nitrogen from septic systems. The alternative solution, public sewer, was far more expensive.

Other towns are facing similar choices. Our infrastructure is aging and it has been designed and constructed piecemeal in response to the haphazard and largely unplanned nature of Cape Cod's development patterns. All this gives rise to some troubling questions:

1. Does your town have a long range capital infrastructure plan and budget?
2. Does your town have a forecast for the fiscal needs of such a plan?
3. Will you be able to afford the assessment you will have to pay for sewer? For water?
   

Who’s doing what?

Time's running out to vote for Peter Kenney, the Great Gadfly for a Best of the Blogs award. Is there a regional solution possible for these issues? Has the county government shown any movement, or has the Cape Cod Commission shown any planning initiative in these areas? Will the Cape's fifteen towns be able to afford the new capital and infrastructure costs of water and sewer as well as the costs of maintaining existing roads and municipal buildings? Does anyone know? Why not?

In the one example of the Hyannis Water District, consider: all is well for the time being. What will happen, though, when the water distribution system, the underground piping, requires replacement? With its triple-A credit rating, will the town simply float a bond?