I’ve seen many many stories on water in recent months due to the record breaking drought, but this one is a little different. This story involves a neighborhood that could lose it’s access to running water not because of a lack of resources, but because of liability issues.
The Statesman sent me to an area near Creedmore, where families must use large tanks to retrieve water from a distribution center. Then they pump that water in to a tank outside of their house and use that reserve for showering, washing dishes, cooking and other daily uses. They have to refill the tanks about every two weeks, even though underground water pipes run close enough to their homes to justify access.
The problem is that when the land was developed, the Las Lomitas’ developer didn’t pay for water line installation. Now those residents may be facing an even bigger problem because the county is looking at shutting down the distribution center.
Reporter Juan Castillo tells the story far more eloquently than I can, so please read his story by clicking here.
The Soto/Escalante family allowed Juan and I to come with them during a routine water run, where they filled up their 500-gallon water tank at the nearest distribution center off of Hwy 183.
It took three teenage boys to load the tank on the back of the pick-up truck, which could barely hold the weight of the full tank. We watched as Juanita Soto waited her turn and then filled the tank from a rusty, old pipe connected to a hose. She said that was an improvement from the former garden hose the county provided.
Then when we returned to her home, her sons and a friend pumped the water into their outdoor tank and topped off a relative’s tank. The whole process took about an hour, which may not seem like much, but if you had to spend that much effort just to make sure water came out of your faucet, you might have a different opinion.
Anyway, here are the photos.
