Family wait months for water after neighbor’s oil spill contaminates well

A family of five in Howie Centre, NS, has been without clean water in their Cape Breton home for months after their well was contaminated by fuel oil.

They say officials from Nova Scotia’s Environment Department confirmed earlier this year that a spill had occurred on a neighbor’s property, but little has been done so far and it is feared the oil has now spread to the nearby Sydney River.

The smell of oil in the house has made the family sick and dealing with the fallout has cost them thousands of dollars, said Adam Betz, who bought the house three years ago with his wife, Kirsten.

“We started noticing that we could smell diesel in the bathroom when we flushed the toilets, so my wife and kids went to Manitoba” to stay with relatives, Betz said.

“They stayed there for about three weeks. It wasn’t cheap, but it was the cheapest option we had. We also had to stay in hotels for several nights to get showers for everyone in the house and to ensure our safety.”

The couple live just outside Sydney in a waterfront home with their two young children and Betz’s father.

Betz said animals appear to have chewed on a neighbor’s oil pipe during the winter, fouling his well in the spring and rendering his home’s water supply useless since April.

Almost three months

The family is extremely frustrated, approaching three months without clean water in the house.

“I still have fuel oil in my well,” Betz said. “My water is contaminated and we have had to use jugs which we fill across the road from a neighbor whose [water is] uncontaminated to bathe the kids, wash the dishes, do the floors and then we buy water for drinking at this point.”

He and his wife are thankful for another neighbor who lives across the street.

“Fortunately, we’ve had some neighbors help us with showers,” Betz said.

“He has a fully finished bathroom in his garage, which we use for my wife, myself and my father. For the two young children, we have the big 20 liter bottles of water that I carried and then we boil six or seven pots to to do the bath with a full 20 liter jug, so that we can get enough water for a bath.”

Betz said his insurance company would cover an oil spill if it was on his property, but not a spill from another property and that his neighbor’s insurance company will not admit liability until the investigation is complete.

Hired a well driller

After months of inactivity and no end in sight, the couple have hired a well driller to try and find a new well on their property.

That meant building a rocky road to their backyard to get the heavy equipment in and there’s no guarantee they’ll find a clean source of water, adding to the stress the family lives with, Betz said.

It means that after work they have spent most of their time bringing clean water into the house and little free time.

“We can’t enjoy the property at all,” Betz said. “It has no value at this point. I couldn’t sell the house and move elsewhere if I wanted to.”

Another neighbor who lives a few doors down said she noticed an oily sheen on the river surface earlier this week.

Lisa Patterson said she’s worried about the Betzes and worried about the river.

“I have grandchildren at home and they have been swimming, boating,” she said.

“So now I’m not sure I can trust that. There are eagles fishing. Yesterday there were two divers on the river. There are beavers. There are people fishing and people are swimming. So I’m very worried and upset.”

Province should do more: neighbour

Patterson said officials from the Department of the Environment visited her home earlier this week to make a statement and take photos of the river water.

The province should do more to protect people’s property and the environment, she said.

“It’s really shocking and disturbing that nothing has been done.”

A Nova Scotia Environment spokesperson said the department cannot confirm the exact location of the spill.

In an email, the spokesperson said the department has commissioned an assessment and plans to monitor the situation and ensure compliance with regulations for contaminated sites.

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