Hooking up

Province’s correctional facility gets green light from City of Charlottetown to join municipal water supply

It’s costing taxpayers $1,000 per week to provide bottled water to the provincial correctional facility.

Unsafe levels of arsenic and uranium found in the jail’s groundwater supply have forced inmates and staff to use bottled water for the last several weeks.

Arsenic and uranium are both naturally occurring in groundwater.

There have been no reports of illness among inmates or employees, but they have been using bottled water for drinking and food preparation for the last several weeks.

Washing and showering has been allowed, as the guidelines are only for consumption.

The province is now looking at options for a long-term solution.

Charlottetown city council voted at its July public meeting Monday to allow the facility, better known as Sleepy Hollow, to hook into the city’s water supply although a timetable hasn’t been made public. It comes with conditions, however.

The city will charge a 25 per cent premium as a surcharge for services provided outside the city boundaries.

The province will also have to foot the bill for construction costs associated with hooking into the city’s water supply.

The same conditions were agreed to between the city and province in regards to the proposed move of the Queens County Highway Maintenance Depot, from Riverside Drive in Charlottetown to 355 Brackley Point Road.