Car Wash Owner Seeks Legal Action Over Council Decision

The owner of a Quispamsis car wash is launching legal action after council denied his request to change the water source for his operations.

Wash 66 has been trucking in thousands of litres of water every week since it first opened on Pettingill Road in May 2019.

Jeff Sheppard sought an amendment to his development agreement to used drilled wells on the property instead.

Council voted 3-2 against the application during their regular meeting in July, despite it being recommended for approval by town staff and the planning advisory committee.

A motion for council to reconsider its decision was brought forward during a subsequent meeting Tuesday night, but it was also defeated.

“I expected that outcome. I wasn’t surprised at all to be honest,” said Sheppard during a phone interview Wednesday. “The whole time, they have not based their decision-making on the facts presented in front of them at all.”

The original development agreement between Wash 66 and the town allowed for Sheppard to apply for permission to change the water source, as long as a full comprehensive hydrogeological study was completed.

The study by Fundy Engineering suggests water supply is “not a concern” in the area, noting there would “likely be more than 11 times the maximum daily consumption by Wash 66 available” from the well.

Even so, Sheppard said he and Fundy Engineering decided to add additional safeguards, such as requiring two 90-day studies during the summer and winter months, which coincide with the typical low precipitation and recharge periods.

“If that report comes back after the study and shows there’s a downward trend, basically if the groundwater isn’t recharging and isn’t coming back up to sufficient levels, there is a requirement for use of the wells to cease and return to water imports,” Dwight Colbourne, the town’s municipal planning officer, told council in July.

Other mitigating measures would have included the ability to see how much water the car wash was using each month, something the town does not currently do for other commercial operations which use well water. There would also have been a cap on how much water the car wash could have used each day.

But even with mitigating measures in place, many residents who attended a public hearing in May raised concerns about the impact the change could have on their water supply.

“When it comes to studying water tables, anything to do with the sustainability of wells, that’s when you defer to the experts and that’s why we hired Fundy Engineering,” said Sheppard.

“[Council is] mandated to make decisions based solely on the facts presented to them, according to the bylaws of conduct of municipal officials. In this case, they didn’t do that.”

Sheppard plans to seek a judicial review of council’s decision with the Court of Queen’s Bench. An affidavit is expected to be filed within the week, he said.

“We feel good about the facts that we have and about all the overwhelming support from the planning advisory committee, the town staff, the recommendation put forth by the town engineer and the town planner, the collaborative work that we did with them,” he said.