Water woes plague township.

Redditt has a supply and demand problem. The citizens demand water and the town has no supply. In the 1920s, Canadian National Railway built a water system to supply their steam locomotives and property. The residents arranged a series of contracts with CNR to tap into the system for water services with one exception.

"It was never intended for drinking water," says Jim Feeny, CNR public affairs director in Winnipeg. "That stipulation was always part of every agreement we had with the community."

Over the years the CNR system was tapped by more residents, the Redditt church, community hall, fire hall and the aviation centre. In September of 2001, the Ministry of Environment, as part of its ongoing services of testing water, announced the system did not comply with new provincial regulations. The new regulations stated any water system supplying more than five households must supply treated water.

"CNR is not in the business of supplying water," says Feeny. "We are a railroad."

The MOE told CNR if they were going to continue supplying water it would have to be treated. CNR was not interested in maintaining the system.

"In November of 2001 CNR went to the community and told the people they would have to come up with a solution because they were shutting down the system," Feeny says.

CNR arranged to continue doing the regular testing and conducted a complete study of the existing system to see who was hooked up and what the status and condition was. CNR provided the information free of charge to the community to help them decide. Redditt received a $100,000-grant from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund in November 2002 to help with the process of finding a solution.

"We hired a consultant to do a study of the different options available," says Tim Fullmer, chairperson of the local services board.

The study will encompass well location, drilling and alternative options. Going to a community well system would result in at least 13 new wells developed to be in compliance with provincial regulations. CNR recently had a new well drilled for their operations at a cost of $6,000.

"Part of the consultant's firm duties are for them to help negotiate a bulk price from an outfit to come in and put in more than one well," says Fullmer.

Redditt has applied for the power of water in order to take over the existing system.

"If we had the mandate, CNR would be willing to turn the system over to us," says Fullmer.

The application process has been slowed because Redditt has not properly defined its entire financial assurance package in regards to taking over the existing system.

"They have to define how they will deal with capital costs, legal and insurance issues and land acquisition issues," says Ron St. Louis, MNDM senior manager of communications.

Without the proper information the paperwork cannot be completed and ministry technical experts cannot complete the processing of the application.

"Once we get the information we will work as quickly as we can with the local services board to get it done," says St. Louis.

Fullmer says 68 adults, 22 children and 65 homes, businesses and public buildings are currently tapped into the CNR system.

"There are a lot of stressed out people," Fullmer says.

Redditt is on a strict sampling routine and sends water samples to the health unit every week. The water has shown no E. coli bacteria.

In December 2002 CNR announced to the community that they had a Feb. 3, 2003 deadline for Redditt to have a new system in place before operations cease.