Corner Brook to cut off water service to Mount Moriah
City says it needs an agreement signed for legal protection
Corner Brook's council has given the neighbouring town of Mount Moriah a Jan 8. deadline to either sign an agreement to pay for its use of the city's water supply, or have the service cut off entirely.
Council pushed through the action at its meeting Monday night, months after a similar ultimatum in September came and went.
"We've been negotiating, or attempting to negotiate with Mount Moriah for well over a year — a year and a half, hundreds of hours of staff time, council time, meetings, phone calls and letters and so on — we still have no agreement with them," Mayor Charles Pender told The Corner Brook Morning Show.
Mount Moriah has had an agreement to receive water for free from the city for decades, connecting through the Curling water line. a deal that expired this August, just after the city's new water treatment plant came online.
Legal issues
Pender said Mount Moriah appeared to be willing to pay the monthly fee for the water, but refused to sign a contract.
Pender said that agreement is necessary in order to legally protect Corner Brook in case of a problem, such as a major break or a water-borne illness.
"It wouldn't be fair to the taxpayers of the city of Corner Brook, our staff or council, who would all be legally liable and responsible for any issues that could potentially happen down in Mount Moriah," he said, adding the neighbouring community of Massey Drive has already signed a similar document.
"If you want to use your telephone, you have to sign a document and an agreement to get your cell phone for three years and pay the fee that they're charging you. So we see no difference in this."
Pender said that agreement would include a maximum daily amount for Mount Moriah, generous enough that it shouldn't be a sticking point.
"We can only supply so much water," Pender said. "We have to have some limits, that we think are reasonable."
"I honestly didn't think it would come to this, and i hope it still doesn't come to that," said the mayor of Mount Moriah, Joe Park.
"There is just a couple of minor issues we think down here that can be resolved within this agreement."
Park said Mount Moriah is concerned about breaks in the water lines from Corner Brook.
When a break happens the town has to flush the lines, and pay for the water needed for that process.
"A small town like Mount Moriah, we only have a half-a-million-dollar budget. And we are paying out almost $150,000 for water," said Park
That is a huge expenditure, and for us to have to pay 36 cents for every thousand gallons flushing out into the bay because of breaks in Curling — that's not acceptable"
Mount Moriah will hold a public meeting Dec. 16 to discuss the issues.