Stonington’s water company will buy tens of thousands of gallons of water from off-island for the rest of the tourism season, marking the fourth summer in five years it has had to truck in an additional supply.
The company issued a mandatory water conservation notice last week in an effort to avoid buying water again this year, but will now buy water from Bucksport starting next Monday, according to its superintendent, Matt Betts.
That’s mainly due to a dry summer, he said. But increasing seasonal tourism in the waterfront downtown area the company serves has also led to more demand in the summer months, an issue that’s been facing the town’s small water district since the pandemic.
“Things aren’t looking good,” Betts said Monday.
The district never trucked in water before 2021, according to previous BDN reporting. That year it had to buy 400,000 gallons because of drought conditions and increasing tourism. Since then, it has trucked in between 200,000 and 300,000 gallons of water annually, except for during the rainy summer of 2023.
This year, the district expects to spend at least $10,000 on 100,000 gallons to make it through August, when tourism tends to slow.
The company currently has about 260 water hookups, Betts said. But in recent years, more people have subdivided buildings into smaller apartments or turned outbuildings into rentals. He estimates that as a result, the true number of customers is between 350 to 400 in the summer months.
“They’ve taken every building they own and turned it into bed and breakfasts,” Betts said.
That, combined with an almost totally dry July, has dropped the company’s water tank to a low enough level that it now needs to buy more water.
The town pays for the purchase, and the water company reimburses it. But the company is “just scraping by” on its budget and already owes Stonington money for past water hauling, Betts said.
The company is in the testing process to possibly add up to three additional wells to increase supply and has been working to replace water pipes that are more than a century old.
Currently, five wells pump between 35,000 and 37,000 gallons each day altogether, while people are using between 40,000 and 45,000 gallons daily.
Given its coastal geology, Stonington has a limited water supply underground, which makes it more difficult to meet increased summer use, especially in dry times.
“We’re just one big rock here,” Betts said.
In the winter months, demand will drop roughly in half, he said. The water system serves the downtown area where shops, restaurants and seasonal accommodations are clustered; many will be unused once the season ends. He said few year-round residents remain there.
Last week’s conservation notice instructed customers to limit how much water they use. But some customers are still watering their lawns and washing their cars, Betts said, against the advisory.
“We’re on a very limited water supply on this island, and people from away don’t realize that. They come from big cities where they have unlimited water supplies,” unlike Stonington, Betts said. “They need to be mindful of that when they’re coming here to visit.”