Hundreds living without public water in Morgan County

Hundreds living without public water in Morgan County

By WHITNEY HOLMES
6 News Anchor/Reporter

SUNBRIGHT (WATE) -- Most Americans don't think twice when they turn on a faucet. However, hundreds of Morgan County residents don't have public water. Some don't even have well water.

Sunbright resident Spring Moore has lived her entire life without water.

"You can't go out and wash your car or take baths and showers the way you would like to. You have to take turns. 'Hey, it's my night tonight and your night is tomorrow," Moore explains.

In Morgan County, 200 homes don't have public water.

Many people like Moore have a well, but it's unreliable. And due to oil and gas exploration in the county, many wells are contaminated, sometimes making people sick.

"I mean you can smell, even taste the difference in it and you can see it. You pull up a cup of tap water and it's got brown stuff floating around in it and you think, well, the water is bad today. You can't drink it," she says.

Moore's water is bad at least once a week.

Most frustrating to her is that after a long day, all she wants to do is take a hot bath. But when she runs the water, it's red.

"That really, really kind of breaks your heart because you know you got to use that water," she says.

These stories also break Morgan County Executive Becky Ruppe's heart.

"In 2009, you can have open heart surgery, go home almost the same day. We send people to the moon. We have the world wide web and hundreds of family that do not have water and that makes no sense to me," Ruppe says.

Ruppe has made it her mission to get loans and grants for water line construction. When she took office five years ago, 300 people were without water. Today, 100 are set to get it in the next year, leaving just 100 to go.

"We got water for a family last year through a grant that she literally raised three kids in a home without indoor plumbing where she had caught water off a roof into garbage cans all those years," Ruppe says.

She says what's most difficult about her job is explaining to people that not every area is qualified for the same loan or grant.

Each application has its own specific qualifications, such as how many homes must be in a square mile, to qualify.

Also, Ruppe must prove on each application that the well water is contaminated and the utility can't afford construction costs

The area's topography is part of the reason why running water lines is difficult.

"It is probably 75 percent rock," explains Sunbright Utility District General Manager Benny Stuart. "And you hit this rock and of course you have to have special equipment to do this."

Stuart says this makes building water lines expensive and with the utility already on the state's distressed list, new water line construction is an investment the utility simply can't afford.

Adding to the difficulty are property easements and strict environmental guidelines.

A year ago, Ruppe promised Moore she'd get her water. Last week, Ruppe got to keep her promise when a water grant was approved.

"I was in shock," Moore confesses. "But when I got off the phone, I did my little dance like, yeah, it's about time. We prayed and prayed for water for years and years."

Moore's water will be running by the end of next summer. She says she can't wait to take a bath, do her dishes and her laundry all in the same day.