Jan 5, 2023 4 min read

A portion of East Dunkard Water Authority was switched over to Southwestern Pennsylvania Water Authority this week as part of an emergency connection necessitated by a recent loss of “positive water pressure.”

A notification sent from the East Dunkard Water Authority to a customer indicated that the interconnection was for customers serviced by the Sugar Grove tank.

The emergency connection brought about a boil water advisory Tuesday as a precautionary measure for all East Dunkard customers.

Crystal Simmons, director of the CDBG home program, said an interconnection with the Sugar Grove tank is part of $1.7 million in Community Development Block Grant-CARES Act money for the East Dunkard Water Authority. Funding will be used to overhaul the East Dunkard treatment facility and water lines as it updates its system and eventually runs a connector line with Southwestern Pennsylvania Water Authority to one day purchase water from that agency.

“At this point, SWPA is just serving them water,” she said. “The connection to SWPA is a process to purchase water. Discussions are underway to review other opportunities. This will be able to feed water to a certain section of the authority. They’ll start purchasing water from the authority.”

Clarissa Eggers, an East Dunkard customer, said she received an email concerning the advisory shortly after 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. She said another email came shortly before 5 p.m. stating the interconnection was made and the cause of the loss of positive water pressure was under investigation.

Eggers, who lives about 5 or 6 miles from Sugar Grove, said she currently is not having any problems with her water, but there has been an ongoing problem in the area for more than 10 years.

“Our water has been brown a lot of times,” she said. “Sometimes, we’ll get a bad smell of chlorine. We’ve had multiple boil water advisories.”

Ashley Gresko said she has been dealing with brown colored water at times in her home in Greensboro since she moved there about two years ago.

“Recently, it’s been a little bit worse,” she said. “I know they’re trying to correct the issue and trying to tap into Southwest, but the past two weeks we have had straight brown water coming into our house. It’s ruined loads of laundry. Our biggest concern is what is the water doing to everything we have.”

Gresko, a customer serviced by the Sugar Grove tank, said the water has been tested and she was told there is no bacteria. However, the discolored water makes her nervous about bathing her 4-month old son.

People in the Bald Hill area have lost water for a days at a time recently.

Patty Stewart, who lives at 504 Bald Hill Road, said Wednesday that has been the case for her as she was in the midst of back to back days without water.

“Our challenge is washing clothes and the dishwasher,” Stewart said. “I don’t mean to complain, but it’s very frustrating. I’ll deal with muddy, dirty water until they get things fixed. I just want my water to come out. It’s just a matter of being told different stories and not being able to contact people when you need to.”

She said her family does not drink the water and has purchased a Primo water dispenser.

Mike Belding, chairman of the Greene County Commissioners, said county officials just want clean water for the citizenry.

“Our interest is in getting clean water at an affordable price for all of our constituents in the county, particularly those that are currently paying water bills for water they can’t drink,” he said.

Phone messages to officials with both East Dunkard Water Authority and Southwestern Pennsylvania Water Authority were not returned Wednesday.

Along with water quality issues, East Dunkard Water Authority is facing a potential $225,000 civil penalty from the Public Utility Commission for providing water to five neighboring communities since 2011 without regulatory appeal. Soon after, the authority began collecting a $16.07 monthly surcharge from customers as a result of the penalty, although that has since been rescinded.

“I just think people in the community need to continue to be involved and let everybody know there is an issue and maybe it starts to shine a light on the problems we are having,” Gresko said. “Hopefully, we can get this resolved in the future so people who want to move to the area don’t have the problems I have.”