Residents at a Wiscasset mobile home park are still without water despite a state deadline.
Whippoorwill Hill Mobile Home Park had until the end of Friday to get a new well installed, but that didn’t happen.
Not a single drop comes out of resident James Cruwys’ faucet, which he said has been happening since February.
“Completely dry,” Whippoorwill Hill Mobile Home Park resident James Cruwys said.
Mike Harman, the lawyer representing the Whippoorwill Hill Mobile Home Park’s management company, said for months there have been a number of issues, from a water shortage, to problems with the well pumps and now leaks, including one that’s significant, which he said was going to be fixed Saturday.
“There probably hasn’t been a solid week where there hasn’t been a water issue,” Cruwys said.
There’s also a boil water notice in effect. Bottled and gallons of water have been provided to residents for when it’s needed.
“This morning, I used five gallon jugs of water to shower,” resident Harold Small said. “Dump them over my head in the bathtub, soap up and then dump more over my head.”
Small said this isn’t the way people should live.
“They just keep saying they’re going to fix it,” Small said. “And it will come on for a little while and then it will go back off.”
The owner of the company Bowie Brothers confirms that drilling for a new well is expected to begin sometime this week. That work could take several days.
The water will still need to be tested before the new well can be used, which Harman said could take two to three weeks.
Until then, large water deliveries continue.
“I’m not surprised,” Small said. “They’ve been saying they’re going to do stuff over and over again since February.”
Residents are racking up costs trying to make do. Many said they don’t want to go, but aren’t sure what else to do.
“I just wish they’d do something to fix it and fix it right,” Small said.
The state remains in contact with park management to ensure progress toward compliance. In a letter sent in June, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention laid out other issues that had to be addressed by certain dates.
It said failure to address the actions in time could lead to enforcement referrals.
