About 225 residents living in and near the Horsebranch communities in Clarendon County and the Pergamos community in Williamsburg County now have access to public drinking water.
The water is available in the communities through the completion of long-awaited public water infrastructure in the area, said Harry Askins, vice president and senior engineer for Eastern Engineering Inc, the firm that worked on the project.
Clarendon County Councilman Benton Blakely said the project has been in the works for more than six years and encountered a lot of red tape before work was started.
“This was not an easy project, but I knew the concerns and the needs of the citizens was too important not to proceed and to make their dreams come true,” Blakely said.
To celebrate the new service, Blakely , Askins and others organized a special inaugural “drink” of water in Turbeville. A small crowd gathered outside of the Horsebranch Baptist Church for the event Friday afternoon to drink the water and to talk about the completion of the highly-anticipated water system.
“We have water,” Blakely told the crowd before the water toast. “There is good, clean water all over this area for the first time.”
“This was really needed,” he said. “We had people with no water. They had to run a garden hose from a relative’s house to their house.”
That resident’s water situation became so bad, a new well finally had to dug, Blakely said.
The need for a public water system was dire because of the overall water quality in the area, Askins said.
“The soil, especially in the Lowcountry, is sandy,” he said. “Williamsburg County has a problem with water tasting bad. You get sand in your washing machine or a strong odor.”
Private wells often run dry and it can cost several thousand dollars to dig a new one, only to have that one run dry in a year or so, Askins said.
“This water system is forever,” he said. “And it regulated by DHEC (the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.)”
The new public water system also allows for fire hydrants to be installed in areas of Williamsburg County. This lowers the insurance rates for homes nearby, Askins said.
The water is pumped into the small communities by Barrineau Public Utilities Inc., a company based in Barrineau Crossroads in Clarendon County, about seven miles from Turbeville.
The project was paid for through a grant and a loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Askins said.
Federal stimulus money indirectly helped the project because it funded other projects across the nation. As a result, Askins said, more money was free to be used for this water project.
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