Paul Pettipas was reacting to concerns raised publicly by Halifax Regional Water Commission general manager Carl Yates on Wednesday about the lack of drinking water safeguards in unserviced parts of metro, now under a 90-day residential development moratorium.

Yates told The Daily News developers have no legal obligation to test groundwater for quality or quantity before subdivisions are built. The result, he said, is a buyer-beware situation where water could contain arsenic, uranium and radio nuclides, or where supply could be inadequate to meet demand as more houses are built.

Pettipas called Yates’s comments inflammatory.

“If you’re on a drilled well, you get your water tested,” Pettipas said yesterday. “We’ve had boil orders in HRM for municipal water. Did he talk about that?”

Still, Pettipas acknowledged there’s no way to know with certainty how many homes in the unserviced areas have water quality problems.

“When my members develop land, they develop under the rules made by the province and the city,” he said.

When the city comes out with its regional plan, Yates wants it to contain requirements for professional water testing before developments proceed.

Pettipas said his members are not against good development practices, but water tests could add a new expense for homeowners.

Ian Avery, owner of Neptune Water Systems Limited, which installs water-treatment systems in homes in unserviced areas of HRM, also took issue with the concerns raised by Yates.

“If you buy a home and you don’t ask for a water test that’s been drilled on your property, your bank won’t give you the mortgage,” he said.

Yates said that may be so, but tests and treatment done after a home is built do not negate the need for public safeguards before subdivisions are built.

And Avery himself said not everyone in his line of business offers sound testing or adequate treatment.

“They’re taking advantage of the homeowner who don’t have a clue about being on a well or owning a water conditioner,” he said.

But, that’s something the Environment Department, not the city, should monitor, Avery said.

smackinlay@hfxnews.ca