First, I would like to commend Dennis Durr and the Haines Borough water folks for keeping the townsite supplied with clean drinking water during these extreme conditions.  Their diligence has continued to solve problems that the antiquated Haines Borough water infrastructure has created.

This is not the first episode with problems at Lilly Lake, and it won’t be the last.  Take a look around us and you will find Skagway and Juneau without any of these problems; they use wells that access clean groundwater for their drinking water sources.  Skagway uses three wells and Juneau uses seven wells, which pretty much leaves these towns immune to drought and hot weather conditions.  That begs the question: Why can’t Haines install wells and stop using Lilly Lake?  Lilly Lake has toads, leeches, numerous contaminants, and long ago, a dead moose.  Why are we filtering and adding chemicals to pond water for our drinking water?

If I’m not mistaken some suitable aquifer sites for drilling wells have been identified, and the large initial expenditure should be offset by saving equivalent amounts of maintenance money in the long term.  I am confident that if we get creative with funding sources, we could make this happen.

It’s time folks! Time for Haines to modernize one of our most important resources and essential needs: Clean drinking water.  In this town where seemingly everything is a controversy, I’m sure this is one issue that all Haines residents can get behind.  It’s time!

Brian Elliott

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