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City messes with Grace's well, gets chiropractic adjustment

Was it a noble attempt to save the people of Sault Ste. Marie from a Walkerton-type public health hazard? Or was it merely an act of bureaucratic vandalism? Dr.
GraceTridico

Was it a noble attempt to save the people of Sault Ste. Marie from a Walkerton-type public health hazard?

Or was it merely an act of bureaucratic vandalism?

Dr. Grace Tridico gave City Council a chiropractic adjustment last night after the City messed with her family's artesian well.

Last week, a City works crew moved in with jackhammers and a Payloader and demolished the outlet to the Tricido well, located near the former Lamming Public School on Third Line just west of Allen's Side Road.

"Our work consisted of removing the fountain structure to ground level and burying the overflow pipe to the adjacent north road ditch on Third Line," says Public Works Commissioner Reg Avery. "In this manner, the water is no longer accessible to the public."

That action was greeted with howls of protest from area residents who valued the demolished fountain as a source of natural, unchlorinated water.

City staff get their subluxations popped

Tridico, who only hours earlier had been rejected as an applicant for the vacant Ward 3 council seat, clearly had her back up over the interference with her well and set out to crack a number of perceived subluxations.

The chiropractor accused City staff of trespassing on her family's property, vandalizing private property and stealing a quantity of gravel to bury the water pipe two feet under.

Commissioner Avery told Council that while the underground artesian well is on the Tridico property, the outlet fountain is on City land and he doubted his work crew would have ventured onto private property during the demolition project.

City promises to replace gravel

As for the gravel taken from a concrete pipe owned by the Tridicos, Avery said it will be replaced sometime today.

Avery said removing the fountain was absolutely essential to preserve public health and protect the City from liability in the wake of the Walkerton tragedy.

A host of new testing and treatment regulations apply to any water supplied by municipalities, and the City can have no part allowing access to untreated water on municipal land, Avery said.

Tridico countered that the well water is perfectly safe and said it should have been tested prior to destruction of the popular fountain.

She told Council she suspects the demolition may have been an attempt to prevent City liability should her well become contaminated with pesticides or herbicides from the new Crimson Ridge golf course, which is served by the same aquifer.

What happens now?

Mayor Rowswell, a professional engineer, said he's willing to work with Tridico to resolve the dispute.

He agrees with her that the pipe cannot be left the way it is because it will freeze over the winter.

At the same, the Mayor was cautioned at last night's meeting that the City may be liable if it does anything now that could be perceived as restoring the well as a source of drinking water.

Rowswell said he's willing to meet further with the chiropractor to seek a solution.

Tuesday afternoon, Tridico told SooToday News that she's taken photographs showing Payloader tracks on her property, and she's having a surveyor determine exactly where the lot line is located.

Did Reg Avery's dad drink the water?

Veteran Councillor Frank Manzo claims the well water has been safely consumed for 84 years by people including Reg Avery's father, and he believes the demolished fountain may actually be on Tridico's private property.

In the meantime, the City's asking anyone who needs water to get it from the fountain at the corner of Goulais Avenue and Second Line West.

That source provides City water that's monitored by the P.U.C.

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David Helwig

About the Author: David Helwig

David Helwig's journalism career spans seven decades beginning in the 1960s. His work has been recognized with national and international awards.
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