EVANSVILLE -- Marilyn La Combe stood outside an outbuilding at the Evansville Fire Department, dropped a quarter into the slot and jiggled the handle until water came out of the short hose.
She gets about three minutes worth of water for each quarter, but the pressure is lower in the afternoon than it is in the morning, she said.
Matching grant
The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded a $140,000 matching grant to the Water Well Trust through its Household Water Well Systems Grant program to make low-interest loans available for building or rehabilitation wells. The project to increase potable water is available to Benton, Carroll, Crawford, Franklin, Johnson, Logan, Madison, Marion, Searcy and Washington counties. Pawnee and Sequoyah counties in Oklahoma also are eligible.
Source: Staff report
About the trust
Water Well Trust seeks to help “low-income families or individuals that have wells that are no longer functioning properly, have contamination issues that render the well unusable or have no well or safe water source.” Applications are available at: http://waterwelltru…
Source: Staff report
La Combe hauls water about four times a day -- filling up old vinegar jugs in the back of her Toyota truck and hauling them about 2 miles home.
A loan program could help La Combe and other Washington and Benton county residents get access to water, according to a news release. The Water Well Trust's Household Water Well Systems Grant program aims to increase potable water access for residents in part of Oklahoma and Northwest Arkansas. The program gives needy families low-interest loans to rehabilitate old wells or drill new ones, according to the release.
The deadline to apply is Sept. 30.
La Combe is among three Washington County residents interested so far, said Renee Biby, county grant administrator. The nonprofit trust runs the program, but Biby will help Washington County residents with paperwork, she said.
Anyone calling about the loan in Benton County is referred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which funds it, said Brenda Guenther, county comptroller. The federal department awarded a $140,000 matching grant for the program.
The money allows the trust to drill wells, completing its 16th recently, said Margaret Martens, program director. There is $60,000 left to spend, enough for about four more wells, she said.
No state surveys show how many people are without access to potable water, but maps provided by the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission show gaps in water service in Benton and Washington counties.
The maps are not official but are guidelines, said Randolph Polk, project engineer at the commission.
Sometimes water providers have pipelines that don't reach all over their coverage areas, officials said.
Not every piece of property can be served, said Josh Moore, Washington Water Authority general manager. Sometimes geography or geology impede laying pipes; sometimes water suppliers run out of money, he said.
The authority expanded its system on Miller Road near Winslow a few years ago but could not serve everyone who wanted water, Moore said. Some people who expected to get county water were left out.
"When we run out of money, that's all the further we can go," Moore said.
The trust completed a project that brought water to six families on Posy Mountain Road in Rogers in 2012. The large project was estimated at $1.2 million, but even when it was finished, another 22 families had asked for water. Those families were put on a waiting list.
Today's well program was written with those families in mind, Martens said.
"It's kind of a vicious cycle because there will always be people who need water," Martens said. "It's pretty prevalent in your area."
Big need
Some residents struggle to get water despite economic growth in Northwest Arkansas, officials said.
"It's all over, and it's really sad," La Combe said.
"There's a big need in the county," Moore said. "There's a big need in the state -- I'm sure there is."
Roughly 5 percent of Arkansans do not have access to public water, said Jeff Stone, director of the engineering section at the Arkansas Department of Health. Nationwide, the trust estimates nearly 2 million people are without water access, Martens said.
People often don't have enough money, Stone said. Tapping water from the county costs about $2,500, La Combe said. Drilling wells in Arkansas costs $7,500 to $14,000, Martens said.
The program gives residents a chance of a loan of up to $11,000 per household with a 1 percent interest rate for up to 20 years. Applicants must own and live in their homes, according to a news release. The applicant's household income must not be more than 100 percent of the median nonmetropolitan median household in Arkansas, or $44,700, according to the release.
At most, someone who gets the loan would pay $50 a month over 20 years, Martens said.
La Combe worried about how to pay back the loan, even if it is only $50 a month, she said. She and her husband are unemployed. La Combe got a haircut and plans to look for work, she said.
Affordability plays a large role in whether people apply for loans like what the trust offers, officials said.
"Is it affordable? Of course, affordability boils down to ability to pay and ability to pay for water (monthly)," Stone said.
People who can't afford water continue to haul it, like La Combe, or use nearby springs and creeks as water sources, officials said. Moore said he knew of one person who used a pond as a water source.
The trust, too, has limited money, Martens said.
"We want to help some more people, but there is a little urgency," Martens said.
Water 'luxury'
La Combe originally moved to her 40 acres just a little more than a mile past the fire department to build a flower farm.
"I really moved here to have an organic farm," La Combe said.
Before the well went dry and then broke, La Combe was building a home with her husband. She envisioned specialty flowers for weddings and crafts.
All that is on hold until she can get water. The house is incomplete. The bathtub is not hooked up.
Instead, La Combe has learned how to heat shower water with camping gear, how to bathe in 1 gallon of water and how to set up rain cisterns to water some plants and animals. She has managed to plant lavender, peonies, grapes and other flowers around her home.
La Combe wants to hook up to the county's water, she said, but the connection is two-tenths of a mile down a steep and rutted drive from her home.
Getting water is a struggle, La Combe said. She said she wants to wash clothes at home, not at a laundromat, and mop the floors. She wants to take a shower with lots of water or an aromatic bath using the lavender she has planted.
Near the fire department, homes had hoses coiled outside and green vegetable gardens. Water shouldn't be just for some people but available to everyone, La Combe said.
"It shouldn't really be a luxury here," she said.
NW News on 07/10/2016