Water foul
Commission discussing solution to cloudy H2O
Odis Phillips, who lives on New River Highway, showed off this water, which he said is the well water his family uses. He advocated for the county to im- prove water quality in his area. (photo:Ben Pounds )
The Anderson County Commission is discussing how to solve the problem.
At the September meeting, the commissioners passed around a clouded bottle of water that resident Odis Phillips said came from his well. He said no utility has ever extended a water line onto his property, which is on New River Highway.
Commissioner Shain Vowell proposed talking to the Budget Committee about using American Rescue Plan Funds “for any type of assistance that we may be able to use for the water issues in the New River community.”
County Finance Department Director Robert Holbrook agreed.
The Budget Committee will meet at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, in Room 312 of the Anderson County Courthouse.
If the Budget Committee approves any measure to solve the issue, that proposal will go to the full commission.
For now, though, the cloudy well water remains the community’s only water supply.
Phillips said the area with poor water includes himself and his wife and, in another house, his granddaughter, her husband and three children. Phillips said there also are two churches in the area, one with the same bad water and another with no water at all.
In an interview, he said the issues with the well water have gotten worse over the past five years, especially during a period of natural gas drilling.
He told the commission it had levels of e. coli bacteria above Environmental Protection Agency standards and listed symptoms of e. coli including bloody diarrhea, nausea, abdominal cramps and vomiting. He said it could kill children.
“You don’t want to drink that,” he said. “And I’ll say this to the commission: I don’t think any of you here would want this to be the only source of water you’ve got coming into your house,” adding that his family has to bathe in it.
He said he’d talked to Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank in 2014, but wasn’t able to get a grant for funding a water line to the property.
“She says everybody tells her there’s not enough people living up there,” he said.
During the meeting, Commissioner Tim Isbel said he’d heard from the Anderson County Water Authority that a line connected to its system would cost $3 million.
He said a better option would be pumping well water into a holding tank and treating it there, an idea repeated by Commissioner Robert McKamey, who suggested doing a study through ACWA’s contractor.
McKamey later made a motion and Commissioner Sabra Beauchamp seconded to have Jamie Brooks, special counsel to the county, look at the ways the county may legally clean up the water, and to have Frank work with ACWA or an engineering firm to further explore opportunities.
It passed in a unanimous voice vote.
Isbel praised Frank for her efforts getting water to “every resident of Anderson County.”
Isbel said the Operations Committee will discuss the issue at its meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14, in Room 312 of the courthouse.
Phillips said after the meeting that he felt positive about the progress on the issue.
“I thank the commission for getting something started, and I believe they’ll get it done,” he said.
