The most recent boil-water order in the village of Fredonia has once again created a great deal of angry chatter and many questions both on social media and throughout the community. Questions like: Why was the boil order declared? Where did the boil order originate? Was it caused by human error? Was it a problem at the Water Treatment Plant? Was the boil order even necessary? Who is responsible? Doesn’t this once again prove that the Village needs to buy water from the North County Water District?

What’s being overlooked in the furor and frustration is the fact that no matter what direction the Village takes in regards to water, Fredonia needs alternate water sources. Alternate water sources to provide aqua for water emergencies, boil order orders, that due to aging infrastructure will continue no matter what, upgrades to the current system and construction of additional pumps and interconnects. The irony is that Fredonia already has water interconnects with the city of Dunkirk and the district that are insufficient and/or inoperable.

According to the OBSERVER, the county recently sent a letter to the village “lecturing” about how the district couldn’t supply the village water during the previous boil order because a boil order is not a “Water Emergency.”

At a recent Board meeting, some trustees echoed that sentiment. Shouldn’t the mayor and Village Board members be advocating for Fredonians rather than simply abdicating to county government? The mayor and village trustees should ask frustrated water users if they think a boil order is enough of a crisis to be labeled a “water emergency.” And if a boil order is not a Water Emergency, then why call the order in the first place? And why give away thousands of gallons of bottled water?

In their letter to the village, the county also reportedly lectured on all the reasons why two of the three current water interconnects to the North County Water District are not operational. Reasons were given about water flow, pressure rates, water quality and other engineering problems.

Questions not addressed in the lecture letter: What was the reason that the interconnects were constructed in the first place? Shouldn’t the engineering problems have been considered and worked through before construction of the interconnects? How much did the interconnects cost? Who paid for them? Why hasn’t the situation been rectified? Why were hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars spent on interconnects that sit idle and can’t be used? Why has nothing been done to put them into operation? Does the North County Water District owe the county $5 million for the construction of these interconnects and other district infrastructure construction?

Are the county and the North County Water District trying to recoup their losses by expanding their base of water customers? Who are the parties responsible for this waste of taxpayer money?

At the public hearing to discuss the Village Board’s Sept. 10 decision to decommission the reservoir and buy water from the district, a County Health Department Official lauded the Village’s “well thought out plan,” even after hearing from the former village attorney and a score of concerned residents about all the unresolved contractual, financial and logistical issues with their incomplete resolution. This official also stated that the county’s only interest in Fredonia water was in providing safe, clean and reliable drinking water to Village residents and water customers. She must have meant except in the case of Boil Water orders and only if the NCWD profits from the sale of that water to Fredonia by stealing the village’s water customers at the great expense of Fredonia residents.

Fredonia’s water decision has sadly produced division and heated debate among village residents and water customers. There is a great deal of misinformation being spread and lots of finger pointing and disrespectful name calling. Regardless of what side of the water issue an individual is on, all should agree that the village needs alternate water sources and all should demand answers from both village and county government about the current inoperable water connections and solutions to the reasons being given why these interconnects can’t be used to provide drinkable water during boil orders.

If the Village Board, North County Water District and county government are so certain that they can plan, engineer, reasonably finance and construct a water project that will reliably pump Lake Erie water five miles uphill to a yet to be constructed storage tank and then use the village’s gravity fed system to deliver this clean drinking water to village residents, if they can do all this, they ought to be able to find a way to make use of the existing interconnects in order to provide drinkable water to residents during boil water orders.

Andrew Ludwig is a Fredonia resident.