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Check it out, Batavia has water.
The increase this year in large tanker trucks lined up in front of the town’s two fire stations waiting to load up with water seemed to suggest to some alarmed residents a suspicious raid on the town’s water supply.
But John Dillon, superintendent of streets and water, says it is no cause for alarm.
“The two stations are in high-profile areas,” Dillon said. “If the stations were behind public works or off the beaten path, people probably wouldn’t be concerned. But when you have semis pulling in and out of fire stations all day and night. . . .”
The numbers of trucks has doubled, at least in the last month, to about an average of six a day, sometimes as many as 10, he said. About half of those contracted truckers state the water’s final destination is residential swimming pools, which can require an initial fill up of 30,000 to 50,000 gallons, and the other half seems headed to landscaping such as the restoration work on Wilson Street downtown, Dillon said.
But the increase and residents’ concerns have resulted in a City Council decision to re-examine its policy of selling bulk water, said Mayor Jeff Schielke.
“We seemed to be suddenly getting inundated with the number of contractors and landscapers that are hitting our tanker and so the policy is under strong review and critical examination,” he said. “One because we have preached to our residents the need to be conservative and somewhat cautious of their consumption of water for landscaping and to look at alternatives and, second, I guess we’ve had some problems with trucks there all hours of the night.”
The latter problem was recently addressed by the fire department which restricted sales of water to the hours of 7 a.m. to dusk.
The city as of May 1 doubled the price of commercial sales to $2.80 per 1,000 gallons which also is twice its residential rate. But Dillon said, it was not intended to curtail sales, just to cover administrative costs.
“If we have an extended drought period, we cut them off, the city’s not obligated to sell bulk water, ” he said.