LUBBOCK, Texas — Folks living in the Cox Subdivision, Town North Estates, Town North Village and Plott Acres neighborhoods have formed the South Plains Water Supply Corporation.
“There’s just a lot of money to be spent to get everything up to code and no one really wants to do it, so we’re doing it,” said SPWSC Board President, Stan Brewer. “We’ve applied for the grant, you know, to get the money necessary to fix the for neighborhoods.”
The group says for years their water supply has been unsafe to drink.
“We get letters now and then saying, ‘High, arsenic levels,’” said SPWSC Board Member, Sheryl Prime. “That’s very disheartening when we’re paying for our water, and we can’t drink it or we don’t feel safe in drinking it.”
However, Brewer said for some homeowners, it’s not the water quality that’s a problem.
“Our big problem was the water supply,” said Brewer. “I mean, so often you got to turn the water and there’s no water in, you know, because the pipes are old.”
While the well water in the subdivisions has had issues for a while, the group’s water resource consultant said 2021’s winter storm made them even worse.
“There’s a bunch of broken pipes, so those need to be repaired,” said Consultant, Ken Rainwater. “Also, the systems were not winterized very well, so, if possible, [it’d] be nice if they were indoors covered up or at least went arise with heavy insulation, those kinds of things can happen. And so, we just want to make sure they’ve got good operators to take care of that and so that it’s doable.”
The corporation, which just created this summer, has applied for a significant grant from the Texas Water Development Board. If they get it, they plan to at least bring their water systems up to code.
“Once there, get the filtration correct, get everything up to code, then the next step would be getting money, getting income in and so that we can upgrade the distribution, go through and fix the pipes, you know, do the real nuts and bolts and stuff.”
As board members figure out how to accomplish this nearly $3 million project, they hope that one say they can just enjoy the water they pay for.
“It would be really kind of an unbelievable thing for me to turn on the faucet and put a glass under it and drink the water and feel like that’s good,” said Prime.
The SPWSC said they would love for more people to get involved and attend their meeting on October 19th. For more details, you can visit their website.
