by Edith Cody-Rice
An informal conversation this morning with retired Mississippi Mills employee John Stanley was quite revealing. John now returns to work for the town during the summers. While he was a full time employee he was entrusted with the supervision of the water supply wells in Almonte. Many of our readers are aware that Almonte draws its drinking water from the Nepean aquifer through five wells built between 1948 and 1991. Three of the wells are older while two are newer. The newer wells are subject to a take water permit which limits the draw from each well to 250 gallons per minute. Exceeding this draw triggers substantial provincial fines.
The Almonte water tower holds 650,000 gallons of water. Just before the water ban was imposed earlier this month, the five pumps were working 20 hours per day and could not fill the tower. With the ban in place, the pumps are working about 12 hours per day on weekends, when demand is highest with many people at home. The pumps are set so that when the tower water level is down 75,000 gallons from its full capacity, the pumps will activate to fill it again.
For more information about the Almonte water supply Click here
