Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 6, 1992 TAG: 9202060015
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER
DATELINE: ELLISTON LENGTH: Long
A WATER SOLUTION?
Montgomery County is forcing the Elliston community to accept a water line it doesn't need, some residents say."There's absolutely nothing wrong with the water," said Joe D. Henson, 80, who grew up on Elliston water.
It comes from Elliston Spring "right out of the mountain. It has very little lime in it. Everyone who ever used it said it was the best because it was soft," Henson said.
But state Health Department officials say it's contaminated and county officials, trying to avoid possible heavy fines, are building the unwanted line anyway.
In addition to state reports that Elliston's water is contaminated, Shawsville's water supply is low. So the Public Service Authority decided that the Christiansburg to Shawsville-Elliston water line was the best solution.
Construction of the $1.8 million line is expected to begin in three to four months, Public Service Authority Director Gary Gibson said. It would be financed through a grant and loan from the Farmers Home Administration.
The authority sent a letter to residents in October 1990 saying Water bills are expected to increase by $5 to $8 a month once the line is completed. the state Health Department found unacceptably high levels of bacteria and turbidity - cloudiness from sand, mud or clay - in the spring. Consequently, the residents were advised to boil the water before using it.
Some residents have ignored that.
"I'm not afraid of it. We were using the same water before the letter," Henson said as his daughter, Nancee, poured a clear glass of water.
"Why mess up what nature gives you?" asked Nancee Henson, 37.
For Towana Kitts, a mother of two girls, it's just plain inconvenient to boil the water. She's been buying bottled water.
Her parents gave her a water purifier to attach to her faucet. Until then, it was frustrating having to boil while caring for a 5-year-old and a 10-month-old baby, she said.
Kitts, who has lived in Elliston seven years, said she would rather see the money spent on solving the flooding problem that almost destroyed Brake Branch Road.
Gracie Harless, 78, who has lived in Elliston since 1935, said she never has boiled her water and never has been sick from it.
And as far as she's concerned, the New River water that will be piped to Elliston is more contaminated than the Elliston Spring.
"I know it's filthy" because of all the animals - dogs, snakes and cattle - that live along and near the river. She's even seen an occasional dead cow or pig on its banks, she said.
The New River probably is dirty, said authority consultant Chip Worley of Anderson & Associates Inc. of Blacksburg, "but when it comes through that treatment plant it meets all the [Health Department] requirements."
In May, Worley proposed two possible solutions: the water line or a 130-million-gallon reservoir on Brake Branch above Elliston. The reservoir would cost $4 million, more than twice the cost of the line.
The county chose the line because of a Health Department deadline of June 1993 to solve the problem, as required by the U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act.
However, the authority hasn't discarded the possibility of building a water-treatment plant on the South Fork of the Roanoke River.
Water bills are expected to increase by $5 to $8 a month once the line is completed. Like most area residents, Harless, whose husband died two years ago, is living on a Social Security check and said she can't afford an increase.
Authority members have talked with the state Water Control Board about using the Roanoke River, but they were told that simply getting a permit would take up to five years.
In addition, the Roanoke River is heavily used by other localities, specifically Roanoke County's new Spring Hollow reservoir.
The authority is "forcing it [the line] down our throats when we don't need it. If we were short of water [like Shawsville], that would be something else," Henson said.
Shawsville's well is not contaminated, but is supplying more customers than state regulations allow.
The line is a waste of money if the authority plans to build a treatment plant, Henson added.
In the 1940s, Henson and his late brother, S.D. Henson, bought the Elliston water system from a local businessman and laid pipe from the highway to homes, he said.
During hard rains that lasted a day or two the water would look milky, Henson said, but monthly samples sent to the Health Department for testing were fine. The only other problem Henson encountered was a shortage of water to the school during the summer, he said.
He sold the system to the authority in the early 1980s.
"When the county took it over I thought it was for the people, but they're making it a profit-making process," Henson said. Henson said officials decided the spring was contaminated when they wanted to run water to Shawsville. Worley said changing times and stricter regulations are the reason the new line must be built.
Before deciding to build the line, the county attempted to drill wells in Shawsville and Elliston, Gibson said. Three were drilled in the Elliston-Lafayette Industrial Park, but two didn't supply enough water, he said.
The third is supplying the east end of the town, he said. The two drilled in Shawsville had a high yield, but the water was hard and had a high mineral content. A treatment plant would have been needed to filter the water, he said.
It was shortly after Hurricane Hugo stormed through the county that the Health Department examined the Elliston Spring, Gibson said.
"We monitored the flow and pH monthly for a year and we discovered that the surface water was being influenced only when there was a significant rainfall," he said.
However, the Health Department told the authority to issue a boiling notice to about 900 residents, including Elliston-Lafayette Elementary School, and to increase the chlorine in the water, he said.
Residents complain that they were never asked their opinions about the water condition and resent being railroaded into getting the water line. Gibson said the authority has held public hearings in Elliston and has listened to everyone.
What the residents say does matter, he said, "but how do you weigh that against the most effective and feasible method" of solving the problem?
The town of Christiansburg has agreed to provide the county with up to 650,000 gallons of water a day for the area. It will take about six to eight months to build more than seven miles of 10-inch pipe and a 250,000-gallon tank.
It was the quickest and most cost-effective method of getting water to the Shawsville-Elliston area, Gibson said. And it will, in fact, result in a lower rate than a water/sewer plant, he said.
Some residents say the county should purify the spring water, but that would be more expensive and would take too long, Worley said. A treatment plant would have to be built and the Health Department probably would require a storage facility, he said.
Supervisor Joe Stewart has offered the use of a spring on his property, but because of new regulations it still would have to be tested and cleaned, Worley said.
Reluctantly, many residents simply have accepted the county's plan to build the water line.
"We're at their mercy," Kitts said. "What else can you do? You need the water."