Thereâs something in the water in Queenâs Cove, N.L. â and it isnât a sea monster.
On a good day, the water flowing out of John Spurrellâs tap looks like apple juice or beer â thatâs what it resembled when CBC News visited his home in late October. But since last year, whenever thereâs rainfall, Spurrell said the water reminds him of a different beverage.
“The water is almost like chocolate milk,” he said in an interview with CBC News. “If you leave it in a glass and let it settle, thereâs mud in the bottom of the glass.”
For nearly a year, the water treatment system servicing most households in Queenâs Cove, a small community in eastern Newfoundland, has been switched off due to a leak in the chlorinating pipe, according to Kirk Kendall, chairperson of the Random Sound West local service district.
“To ensure that the residents had some water, there was a bypass installed. So they get water directly from the reservoir to their households, but it goes around the filtration system and the chlorination system,” he said.
That means the 36 households that rely on the system are getting water straight from the reservoir. Spurrell said the water stains bathtubs, sinks and clothes.
“Sometimes itâs almost black, especially when thereâs runoff.”
Spurrell said many of his neighbours have been forced to bring in bottled water. Spurrell said heâs been bringing in water from his cabin.
According to Spurrell, the water issues started during summer 2025, when Queenâs Cove â like several other communities across the province â began experiencing low water levels.Â
Kendall said during that time, sediment ran down into the system and caused damage, which is why the district hired a contractor to search for leaks.
Spurrell said residents didnât have water at all for a while, but got it back during the fall. Then, the district discovered the issue with the chlorination pipe.
John Spurrell says the water in Queen’s Cove gets worse after a rainfall. (Submitted by John Spurrell)
Since the bypass was put in place last December, the community has been on a boil water advisory.
Then, last spring, Spurrell and other residents received a bill for $1,445.00. He said after residents complained, the bill was corrected to $1,080 â they were told the original bill included a calculation error.
But Spurrell still balks at paying for work on the water system.
“The problem we got with that, people are not going to pay the bill because we still got no water that we can drink or wash clothes or anything in,” he said.
Kendall said the chlorination pipe repair costs $30,000 â that would be roughly $833 per household, on top of the existing $1,080 charge. He said the district has applied for provincial funding to offset the cost of the repair, but hasnât gotten a response yet.
In an emailed statement to CBC News, Municipal and Community Affairs spokesperson Michelle Hunt-Grouchy said the department has been working with the local service district “to determine possible funding solutions.”
The provincial government has a running public list of dozens of communities across the province with boil or non-consumption orders in place.
According to Municipalities N.L., 45 municipalities across the province have been under boil water advisories for more than two years, and it would take $400,000,000 to replace all those aging water systems.
That statistic doesn’t include local service districts like Queen’s Cove, where the water system is nearly 50 years old, according to Spurrell.
Meanwhile Spurrell said he’s taken it upon himself to contact provincial officials, trying to get someone to do something about the water issues in Queen’s Cove.
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