City watershed low but improving

Samantha Steele

Jan. 22, 2016

Sarah Wheatley knows what’s like to see something you love suffer.

Her love? Water, and the environment.

As a coordinator for the Winter River Tracadie Watershed Association, she is passionate about preserving the river.

Her biggest worry is the extreme water use by the residents of Charlottetown and the effect this has on the watershed.

Wheatley explained the difference between the winter and summer months.

“Between the Brackley Point road and the Union Road and it was bone dry, looked like a walking path for months and months.” She said.

She said it only started to fill up in December and later that month, the spring started to flow again

Wheatley isn't the only city resident concerned about our water use. Bob Doiron explains just how much the city is using.

The Charlottetown City councillor said that the city has started implementing its water metre project that will be completed by the end of 2019.

"Now a water metre will show you how much water you're using and you'll be charged appropriately for that,"

Doiron said water overuse will result in higher charges for some residents and hopes this will be an incentive to conserve water.

"When you say water will be forever, that's just not the case." he said.

Wheatley agrees that the water metres will help the city reduce but as the population is growing, more and more water is being drawn.

"People in Canada and North America we're (using) more in the range of 200 to 250 litres of water a day,"

She said that according to the United Nations, we should only need 50 litres.

Water overuse is inevitable and the city is now looking into opening another watershed in Miltonvale Park.

Wheatley said that when the time comes, islanders will be shocked when having to significantly reduce their intake.

"Anytime you interrupt what someone is used to doing, it throws them for a loop, we want to use less water so if we get into a drought we are used to using less water,"