What’s wrong?
There’s a drought of drinking fountains at the Alderney Ferry Terminal. Thirsty travellers are perfectly free to enjoy a refreshing drink at the Halifax and Woodside terminals. Only Alderney remains inexplicably dry. The only option for paying customers on the Dartmouth side who want H2O is the lukewarm, fecal-infused liquid coming from the bathroom taps.
Who’s to blame?
I don’t know...historical momentum? City spokesperson Tiffany Chase, keeper of all transit secrets, had no idea why the Dartmouth terminal is without a fountain.
“We don’t have a particular reason why there isn’t one at Alderney and there is at the other two,” she says.
The municipality’s bylaws ridiculously don’t demand public facilities install free, clean, accessible drinking options. The closest thing is this motion from 2010 where council voted to phase out bottled water “where possible” in all HRM administrative and operational facilities.
On a big environmental kick that year, HRM facility staff tested water quality at a variety of locations to ensure staff and the public had access to clean, free drinking water from an “aesthetically suitable source.” The city defines that as a clean kitchen tap, fountain or bottle filling station. “Not a tap in a janitorial closet sink.”
“Any major repair requirements or absences of drinking infrastructures will be put into future facility recapitalization or maintenance programs,” the 2010 report reads. “With the exception of a small number of facilities, there is no work required to provide the public and staff access to clean, free drinking water.”
The responsibility is ultimately yours then, parched public transit rider. Tiffany Chase recommends phoning 311 with demands for drinking fountains at Alderney or any other HRM facility (I’m told there’s no fountain at the Bridge Terminal, either) in order to get the water flowing.
“If that was something passengers expressed we could certainly look at it.”
