Sugar Grove Town Hall Meeting Addresses Water Troubles

BY CLAIRE GALOFARO
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER

SUGAR GROVE, Va. – Hundreds of Smyth County residents crowded into the sweltering gymnasium at Sugar Grove Combined School on Monday to talk about this community’s water troubles.
It was the first town hall-style meeting held to address the boil-water notice that went out June 11 to Sugar Grove residents.

State Delegate Bill Carrico, R-Independence, hosted the meeting. He stood in the center of a long table set up on the basketball court floor, flanked by half a dozen people on each side. To his left, state and local government and health officials scribbled notes on each question asked by those in the audience. To his right, those with the Rye Valley Water Authority fended off irritated complaints and demands for answers.

“Everybody here tonight is looking for answers,” Carrico said after the meeting. “This has been disruptive to 550-some homes. My main focus is to get some temporary things in place to lessen that effect in the lives of these people.”

About two weeks ago, households and businesses got a letter from the Water Authority informing them that their water might be contaminated. For the next 18 months, the letter states, residents must bring the water to a rolling boil before drinking, brushing their teeth, preparing food, making ice or otherwise ingesting it.

No solutions were offered Monday, but officials reminded those in the audience that solutions weren’t necessarily the point of the gathering.

“You all are my children and I’ve got to make sure you’re taken care of,” Carrico said. “But I don’t know how to fix the problem. If I did, I’d fix it tomorrow.”

The fix is a trailer-sized filtration system that will cost about $1.3 million. Carrico emphasized that federal, state and local grants and loans are available, and he will push to help secure them to cover at least part of the costs. But the Water Authority must apply for them, he said.

David Rutherford, system operator for the Water Authority, said an application was made for a grant through the Virginia Department of Health on March 27, more than two months before the boil notice was issued.

He said the authority will apply for more once all of the details are worked out.

“If we don’t get a grant, I feel sorry for you when you get your water bill,” Carl Parsons Jr., Water Authority chairman, told the audience.

Those in the crowd were not pleased, grumbling to each other.

Meanwhile, Carrico and others focused on temporary solutions to ease the financial and time burdens of boiling and buying water. They are considering two temporary filtration systems that could be bought or rented before the permanent system is up and running. Both would cost tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of dollars to procure and operate, and officials wonder where to get the money.

The audience fanned themselves with brochures passed out by the Virginia Department of Health that answered frequently asked questions about boil-water notices. They exchanged notes about $30 home filtration systems and wondered aloud about their kid’s safety when they return to school in the fall.

The boil alert was issued nearly a year after the state health department first noticed signs of the bacteria. 

Those in the crowd Monday asked why they weren’t told before, whether they’ll get a break on their water bill since they can’t drink the water and the exact nature of the problem.

One person asked if there was, or could be, a Web site through the Water Authority that would track developments. The answer was no, although Rutherford suggested that residents call the authority for news. However, a number of calls over the last two weeks to the Rye Valley Water Authority by the Bristol Herald Courier have not been returned.

One man asked why the two sides of the table seemed to have very different understandings of the severity of the water problems.

“I’m confused,” he said.

The presence of certain bacteria, called coliform, suggests that surface water infiltrated the drinking water source, which suggests that parasites could be present. Those parasites live in the intestines of warm-blooded hosts, and can cause nausea, cramps, diarrhea and headaches.

When one person asked if a certain parasite was present in the water, Richard Puckett, field director of the state’s Office of Drinking Water in Abingdon, responded, “I can’t answer that.”

The officials walked away from the meeting with suggestions and concerns to address within the community. Residents seemed to leave with some hope that something might be done.

“I think it was a successful meeting,” said Michael D. Ward, a local resident and minister. “We’ve got a problem and we’ve got to solve it. We need help from all sides, including us, to get through this. Now it sounds like the government’s ready to help. The Water Authority just has to request it.”

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