BRUNSWICK

Unexpected complications have arisen with a well that was to provide relief to residents at Bay Bridge Estates mobile home park who have had their water rationed since last month.

That’s according to Brunswick Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Emerson, the town’s health officer, who said Friday the park had obtained an engineer stamp from a Massachusetts engineer, but needed a Maine state engineer to approve the well, setting the project back. If everything goes well, it could still be online within a week, he estimated. He said it is still not known if the well will be the solution to the water shortage until it is online.

The goal had been to have the well — the park’s third — online by Jan. 19. The well, an old well that had been covered 30 years ago, was uncovered last summer, but needed upgrades and testing to be connected to the water service, according to Kevin McCarthy of Liberty Management Group.

“My intelligence tells me that they didn’t dig that well or drill that well at all,” said Councilor David Watson at the Tuesday council meeting, “that it was Crookers that did it, which means that that’s an old well and I have some concerns with it.”

Watson added: “I’m concerned about a lot of health issues out there.”

Since mobilizing around the water rationing issue, residents have also complained about the park’s water and sewer infrastructure, as well as water quality.

Emerson said water quality testing is being conducted by A & L Laboratory Inc. of Auburn “to help ease some of the concerns of the residents of the park.”

Testing will take place at various locations around the mobile home park, Emerson said, and include water source and distribution points.

The water shortage began in late December, and is believed to be due to a combination of water leaks and residents continuously running water to keep pipes from freezing in extreme cold temperatures, to which park management responded by rationing water.

The town addressed the water shortage by arranging for water to be trucked in, at the cost of the park’s owner, while park staff gets the third well online to add to the well-fed water supply.

“It has been very eyeopening to me, this whole thing with Bay Bridge,” said Councilor Steve Walker, speaking Tuesday, “and the gaps in management, or lack thereof, and lack of communication between management and the citizens out there. And given that we have several parks in the town of Brunswick, is there potential for this to happen again? Of course there is, under different management scenarios.

“So is it worth our while as the town body to have some oversight as to how management is actually carried out or if there are homeowner agreements that aren’t being lived up to?” he continued. “It’s just a foreign situation to me, seeing how an out-of-town management entity can treat citizens of this town, and I hope that it won’t replicate itself in the other parks.”

Councilor Suzan Wilson asked if the council should ask the planning department to look into the responsibility of zoning in place on these types of organizations or locations within the town.

“Because I kind of get the feeling they’re sort of in the no-man land essentially,” she said, “when it comes to the land use and the zoning.”

Watson commended the town for its response to the water issues at the park.