ELIZABETHTON – In a month or two people in Little Milligan and Fish Springs will have the luxury of taking a shower and not worrying about running out of water. They will have plenty of water to wash their clothes and even wash their cars.
The luxury of a public water supply that so many of us take for granted was made possible because of the work of several community leaders. When things went wrong over a span of 11 years, these leaders continued to work toward the goal that is now, finally, in sight.
“This was a real grassroots effort,” project engineer Gary Tysinger of Tysinger, Hampton and Partners said. He said he has never worked on a project quite like it because the planned water source was taken away again and again. Three water sources were on the drawing board and all three were taken off, forcing the project to start from scratch four times.
Through it all, the community leaders kept the faith and encouraged their community that water would come some day.
“Mountain folk are known for their endurance and their perseverance. That is what they did on this project and it is finally going to pay off,” Tysinger said.
It all began for Tysinger on a rather inauspicious occasion. He was asked to attend a public meeting to discuss a possible water project. The plan was to extend a water line from the Carderview Utility District on the north shore of Watauga Lake to Little Milligan and Fish Springs on the south shore.
Tysinger said it was a memorable meeting for him because of the day it was held, Sept. 11, 2001. “I agreed to provide a feasibility study at no cost to see if funding would be available. The estimate was that it would cost between $3 million and $3.5 million. Ironically, the source for the water would change, causing the plans to change several times, but the bottom line always remained around $3.4 million to $3.5 million.
He said the First Tennessee Development District also became involved and was vital in finding funding sources.
Community leader and Little Milligan Elementary School Principal J.R. Campbell said the community was working on the project long before that. He said Danny Duffield really got things started with a petition he circulated calling for a dependable water source for the community.
Bill Finney, Bob Sluder and Grant Sharpe were other early leaders, Tysinger said. Their timing was more auspicious than the date of the first meeting. They were working to get water during a time when one of the most persistent droughts in memory plagued the communities, causing private water sources to dry up and forcing residents to travel miles to more reliable springs, where they filled up water bottles and tanks on a daily basis.
Things appeared to be moving forward and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development was preparing to provide funding for the project. The first part of the funding was to be a $500,000 Imminent Treat Community Development Block Grant.
But the numbers were going to be difficult. The 1,000-foot stretch of line across the Butler Bridge – with an estimated cost of $300,000 – turned out to be a deal breaker.
For the next few years, until 2006, the project leaders continued to look for a possible water source. During that time, Tysinger said Michael Hughes, then the executive director of the Watauga River Regional Water Authority, became involved. The water authority board of directors agreed to take on the project.
A possible water source appeared in 2006 to be the Hampton Utility District. This appeared to be a good candidate, especially since the utility already had water lines along part of the south shore of Watauga Lake.
But once again, the plans had to be revised, Tysinger said, when the Hampton Utility District Board of Directors voted not to provide the water.
Things then moved in the direction of the Elizabethton Water Department. In 2007 then City Manager Rusty Treadway proposed to enter into an agreement to provide 200,000 gallons of water a day to Fish Springs and Little Milligan as part of a larger plan for the water authority to provide up to a million gallons of water a day to the city when the WRRWA water plant at Wilbur Lake became operational.
This plan fell through when the Elizabethton City Council fired Treadway on Oct. 11, 2007.
After apparent deals with three water suppliers fell through, Tysinger said the idea of having the water authority develop a water source under its own control became appealing. Tysinger said one of the big problems would be the time it would take to accomplish.
To meet the immediate and future needs of the community, a large aquifer had to be found, and that required a hydrologic study. The results showed a good flow coming from Pond Mountain. One of the best spots was on a piece of high ground owned by Frances Ward that the authority was already considering for a storage tank.
Ward agreed to allow the authority to drill an exploratory well. A good source of water was found, but Tysinger said the shale rock in the area was shaped like a waffle. It would take a specialized drilling company to drill a well in the crumbly rock.
With a dependable water source now identified, the money for the project started to be spent. Pipelines were laid last year along the roads and hollows in the mountainous community. During this winter’s mild weather, the storage tank and treatment facility went up.
Now, the final stages of the project are being completed and prospective customers are preparing to hook up to the new system. Some of the original customers were surprised that they did not qualify for the 400 feet of service line to their homes.
Once again, the community spirit appears to be coming through. Campbell said last week that he believed everyone would be getting together to help the neighbors who need assistance in getting their service lines put in.
After all the sidetracks and dead ends, it appears the project is finally nearing completion. Tysinger has called it a truly grassroots effort and perhaps that explains why it has survived so many disappointments that might have led a government entity to pull the plug.
But the people of Little Milligan and Fish Springs have remained motivated and hope they will soon be able to drink the reward for their perseverance.