ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 4, 1994                   TAG: 9408040075
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CLEAN WATER EFFORT LAUNCHED

TAZEWELL - U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy will begin a national initiative Friday in Southwest Virginia to provide clean drinking water to more than 500,000 rural Americans.

Espy and Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, will meet with families and community officials at 1:30 p.m. in the Tazewell County community of Falls Mills, where a federally funded water system to provide hundreds of residents with clean drinking water recently was completed.

The 1990 census data shows that Virginia has more than 30,000 households without such basics as hot and cold running water, flush toilets and bathtubs or showers.

Only Kentucky and Texas have more households without access to adequate drinking water.

Boucher had been urging new Agriculture Department officials to undertake the clean drinking water effort since the start of the Clinton administration. He said thousands of families in Southwest Virginia's coal counties are without adequate plumbing or access to wells.

``Access to clean drinking water, which many people take for granted, is not available to thousands of families in the 9th District,'' he said. ``As we prepare to enter the 21st century, we must ensure that every person has drinking water in his home. Secretary Espy and I will be working hard to make that happen.''

Espy's visit will come five days before his Aug.10 Pure Water Roundtable in Washington, D.C., which will kick off the ``Water 2000: A Faucet in Every Home'' project. It is a Clinton administration initiative to provide clean tap water for every U.S. household by the end of the century.

Boucher said the round table will bring together government agencies and private and nonprofit organizations to develop a comprehensive plan for expanding water access across the nation.

Falls Mills received $2 million in grants and loans from the Farmers Home Administration and the Appalachian Regional Commission to build its water system. Boucher said the project is an example of the long-term solutions that will be needed to make the ``Water 2000'' program successful. 


 by CNB