Lack Of Public Water Plagues Rural Tennessee

[RestoreGore]

(edited for copyright purposes . proud patriot Moderator Democratic Underground)

Photos at the site:

Tammy Blatt washes dishes outside near the drums of water that she and her husband, Wayne, must buy and haul twice a week, at considerable expense, since their well went dry in April. The Blatts live on a farm near Carthage in Smith County. (SHELLEY MAYS / THE TENNESSEAN)

Jason Thompson of Sumner County holds a glass of water taken from his spring. The water, which contains high levels of iron and bacteria, is not drinkable, and they have to haul water. (SHELLEY MAYS / THE TENNESSEAN)

Tina Pearson wipes tears from her face after talking about how her children might have drunk contaminated water from her well. (SHELLEY MAYS/THE TENNESSEAN)

Eva Shachno discusses the retaining pond her family uses to hold water from a creek. Her husband built a pump system to carry water to their trailer for bathing and washing clothes. (SHELLEY MAYS/THE TENNESSEAN)

Lack Of Public Water Plagues Rural Tennessee
Sunday, 07/15/07

Lack of public water plagues rural Tennessee
Cost to connect all is $1.7B; some use risky sources

By SHEILA WISSNER
Staff Writer

Eva Shachno inspects the half-submerged pump humming quietly in a creek near her home in northern Sumner County.

A long, green garden hose snakes from the pump to a hand-built retaining pond and then into her trailer, where she uses the untreated water for bathing and washing clothes. She fills up gallon jugs at the dog kennel where she works to use for drinking, cooking and brushing her teeth.

The Shachno household is among an estimated 112,000 across rural Tennessee that don't have public water.

But extending water lines to every rural home in Tennessee would cost an estimated $1.7 billion, and local officials say money is in short supply. The state has no organized plan to extend the lines or to aid those who, like the Shachnos, have no water. Some legislators say that needs to change.

"The irony to me is, we are talking about an hour's drive from downtown Nashville, in the eighth-largest county in the state, in 2007,'' said state Rep. Mike McDonald, a Democrat who represents northern Sumner County.


Water Is Life

[kestrel91316]

1. "Public water" is just one more evil commie plot, so we MUSN'T

provide it.

If people want water they can just pay for it all themselves. Stinkin' freeloaders!!

:sarcasm:

[tularetom]

2. My grandparents lived in Sumner County

I leived there myself for a few years when my mom and dad were both in the service during WWII. The well water tasted like shit even then. And it was friggin BROWN. We were told it was just iron. We drank out of the creek instead although we weren't supposed to. I can remember that even after 50 plus years have passed.

"We can put a man on the moon but" our citizens are still drinkin the same shitty water. Our priorities are really fucked.

[Lance_Boyle]

3. If you live where there is no municipal water supply, you bore a well.

If your well goes dry, you bore deeper, or in a different location. If your well water smells of sulfur, or is hard, or contains high iron, you put in a treatment system. This does not come cheap. Routing municipal water to people in rural areas is not feasible. If you want municipal water, move into the municipality.

[RestoreGore]

5. That's great, if you can afford it.

[Lance_Boyle]

6. that's rural living

in exchange for not paying municipal taxes/fees, you get to fund and maintain your own water supply.

[RestoreGore]

8. Sorry, but water is a human right

From the article:

Well is no guarantee

The issue surfaced last month when lawmakers learned Gov. Phil Bredesen had put money in the budget to run a pipe up a mountain in Warren County for residents who don't have water. Tempers flared as legislators demanded to know why one county got money when others needed it, too.

"We need a statewide comprehensive plan to get water to people, and then we wouldn't have these arguments," McDonald said.

McDonald subsequently gathered more than three dozen signatures on a bill that would have authorized the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to develop a statewide water plan and loan fund to help communities extend more water lines.

It would have been patterned after the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority, which requires all projects using state or federal funds to be vetted through an organized chain of local and regional councils. The bill didn't pass this session, but McDonald says he'll push the issue again next year.

A study he requested, conducted by Environment and Conservation in 2004, estimated that 5 percent of Tennessee households didn't have municipal water. It would take 18,470 miles of lines to get water to 112,000 households, at a cost of $1.7 billion, the study estimated.

[Cookie wookie]

11. Sounds like music to Republicans ears.

[fed-up]

9. educate yourself about corporate pollution of water supplies & what little Public Health/EPA do nt

[KoKo]

12. One of those interviewed had a $4,000 treatment system...didn't work.

And, you can't dig deeper if an underground aquifer isn't there.

[Lance_Boyle]

13. If that's the case, they purchased poorly

perk tests should be done prior to purchase of rural land.

[JacquesMolay]

4. Welcome to the future.

The CIA did a report in 2000 that said 2 billion people wouldn't have access to clean water by 2015. This is going to be happening on regional and national scale all over the Earth. A large part of the conflict in Darfur is over access to water by competing factions.

[hatrack]

7. Yeah, but we thought it was just Darfur, or India, or China . . .

You know, those "other" people.

Guess again!

[Uncle Joe]

10. Harsh reality is much closer to home than many people believe.

Thanks for the thread RestoreGore

Kicked and recommended.