The town council of Ramea, N.L., has declared a state of emergency over a lack of fresh running water.

Two weeks after a storm surge dumped salt water in their water system, residents of Ramea, on Northwest Island off the southern coast of Newfoundland, are still without fresh running water.

Mayor Clyde Dominie told CBC Friday afternoon the town would have declared a state of emergency earlier but thought the salt water would flush out of the system after a week or so.

"But that didn't happen, and we've got to the point where we certainly have to do what we can about it," he told CBC Radio's On The Go.

"We were hoping that by doing this, we would actually get some things seen to quicker than normal."

A storm surge two weeks ago that flooded the community of Coombs Cove, above, on the Connaigre Peninsula on the southern coast of Newfoundland, also disrupted the water system in Ramea, 200 kilometres west. (Jamie Thornhill & Phoebe Dominix Cox)

The town has a supply of fresh water at the water treatment plant itself, but it's unusable for consumption.

"People still have water to their homes for their toilet, their washing or whatever, but the level of salt, of course, the sodium is way up from what it should be," said Dominie, who added the town's sodium levels are about six times acceptable standards.

Water has been too salty

Dominie told CBC News earlier Friday that the seas were higher than anyone had ever seen in the area.

"A large amount of salt water entered our reservoir and turned our water quite salty at the time," he said.

Since then, residents have had to go to the plant, where a reverse osmosis unit treats the salt water, with containers to fill up with drinking water.

This photo shows flooding and damage to a property in Ramea during storm surges on Dec. 16. (Twitter/@gregorycutler)

The water currently coming out of residents' taps can be used for washing clothes, but not for cooking or drinking, said Dominie.

Isolated community

Resident Catherine Cutler said it has been a frustrating two weeks without water.

"Nobody has been to the community to assess the damage that was caused. There's been nobody here to talk to people, to see for themselves what's going on."

She said the small island community, with roughly 400 or so residents, only receives major shipments from the ferry from Burgeo once a week.

In the wintertime, that wait can be even longer, with poor weather conditions often stranding the ferry on shore.

"As soon as this happened, you know what people did? They flocked to the store and they bought up all the bottled water," she said.

"For a whole week here in town, you couldn't go to the store and actually buy a bottle of water."

She said that many area residents are also skeptical of the reverse osmosis process for removing salt from the water, leading them to rely on purchases of bottled water.

Bottled water has been selling out on Ramea in the weeks since the town's tap water was compromised. (CBC)

"It's still coming through the same water source, but it's just going through the reverse osmosis system," she said. "It's still coming through the same water source, but it's just going through the reverse osmosis system," she said.

"We question whether all the salt has actually come out of the water going through that system."

Cutler believes that if the government isn't going to provide a solution to the problem any time soon, then residents shouldn't have to pay for bottled water.

"I think in a situation like this where it's not our choice whether we go purchase the water — we really kind of have to — I don't think we should have to pay for it.

Minister responds

Service NL Minister Eddie Joyce said on Friday that he has been in close contact with Dominie and the region's MHA Andrew Parsons about the issue.

Service NL Minister Eddie Joyce says the province is hoping to send an engineer to Ramea on Monday. (Gary Locke/CBC)

Now that a state of emergency has been declared and it seems likely the problem won't be resolved naturally, he said the province is hoping to send in an engineer to assess the situation on Monday.

"The plan is right now Monday to go in and see what can be done and what can be done to hopefully fix this in the future so this don't occur again," he said.

"I know it's tough on the residents in the Ramea area and I know it's tough on the council and we will be working with them on a regular basis to try and get this fixed permanently for the town of Ramea."

​Residents coping

As the water crisis continues, Cutler also worries about what might happen to common household appliances after they've been used with salt water.

"You can't go two weeks and not wash laundry and you can't go two weeks and not wash dishes, so we're wondering how is this going to play out on our appliances and what's going to happen when the salt water is all gone and out of the system," she said.

The town has been dealing with salty water since a storm surge on Dec. 16. As well, a major water leak happened on Christmas Eve, causing more disruptions for the system.

"It's been a difficult couple of weeks, and our town workers have been doing their darndest to do what they can," Dominie said. "We're hoping that Mother Nature will keep working to do what it needs to do."

Dominie said an engineer will be there by Wednesday at the latest to test equipment, and officials plan to flush the system until salt levels are low enough.

The first priority is to get salt out of the water, and then later the town will look at building a better system, according to the mayor.

He said the town is in the process of getting that funding approved, which he hopes will happen soon as they are worried about future incidents with storm surges happening more frequently,