By CHARLES OWENS
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
May 19, 2008 08:19 pm
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OAKVALE — A $6.2 million water project years in the making for Mercer County is another step closer to reality.
The Oakvale Road Public Service District is now seeking proposals from engineering firms to assist with the development of a new water system that would serve the Oakvale, Poplar Grove, Greasy Ridge, Cheesy Creek and Elgood communities.
The project would serve an estimated 354 families currently dependent upon well water in the five communities, Pamela Browning, general manager of the Oakvale Road Public Service District, said.
Sylvia Sively, a concerned resident who has gone door-to-door signing up her neighbors for the water project, said it is desperately needed. Sively said the community is experiencing both quantity and quality problems with its existing well water.
“Yes, we need water desperately down here,” Sively said. “So many of the wells that were tested tested positive for E-coli. I’m just so thankful that we’ve gotten this far, and have to pray that this happens real, real soon because the water level is going down. And big families that use a lot of water — sometimes their wells go dry.”
Browning said health officials recently conducted 85 samples of the private wells. The testing from the 73 families who consented to the release of the results found 15 wells that tested positive for E-coli; 48 that tested positive for chloroform; and another 25 tested negative for bacteria.
“We’ve gotten really good support from the public,” Browning said. “We’ve got a good team working to get this together. Region 1 is working with us. The town of Oakvale is working with us. We’ve just got a great team. We are just working together to try to get them water.”
Morgan said the majority of the potential users for the project are on well water, including the town of Oakvale.
Morgan said officials met with U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., last Friday, and provided the congressman an update on the project. Morgan said officials are actively searching for funding sources for the project. The PSD has applied for funding through the West Virginia Infrastructure and Job Development Council, and is waiting to hear back from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
There is no time frame for the start of construction on the project. The PSD hopes to receive the engineering bids by June.
Morgan said the project has been in the planning stages for more than a decade.
— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com
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