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LITTLE HOCKING -- There aren't any corroded pipes, old lead joints or iron and manganese levels to worry about in the Little Hocking Water Association area.
Water quality is good, but the pressure is so low in so many areas that there are moratoriums on issuing new taps for 18 separate neighborhoods and roads.
New lift stations and water tanks will help, and they're on the LHWA needs list. In the meantime, though, the moratoriums are stifling residential and commercial expansion in parts of the county, since new homes and businesses can't access drinking water. This is "a disincentive to building in these portions of the county," according to the Washington County Safe Water Project report assembled by the Washington County Commission last year.
The LHWA concurs. Their own assessment points out that the Warren Local School District invested in the construction of state-of-the-art facilities in 2021. That's a strong draw for new residents and businesses to the western half of the county, if they could just get a decent water flow. The EPA identifies 30 psi as the minimum pressure at the front of a house. At some points along the LHWA lines, pressure is as low as 21 psi.
The tap moratoriums cover parts of the Ridgewood Heights area, Gentry Heights, Fairfield Heights, Stone Quarry Road, Rubrake Road, Watertown Road, Rocky Point Road, Southland Cemetery Road, Schoolhouse Road (west end and Ellis Richardson Extension), and Barnett Ridge Road.
John Smith, General Manager of the LHWA, said a combination of things contribute to the low pressure problem. For one thing, the water association was established in 1968 and the system that was designed and built in the '70s and '80s was based on a certain level of projected growth. There's been a lot of expansion, probably more than expected. LHWA was originally formed to supply water to the village of Little Hocking, but it now supplies water to several townships in the western half of the county.
LHWA President John Rauch thinks there's another element that was not anticipated years ago.
"We have lots of farmland," he said. "The next generation is not farming. They're developing houses and other structures."
The water association also has Ohio 339 water line to replace, from the water treatment plant to Watertown. On Ohio 339, it's not about water pressure. It's almost about the line being between a rock and a hard place.
"The line was put down on a base of mostly rock," Smith said. "There's no bed of sand around it to cushion the line from rubbing on the rock. We've had a lot of line breaks as a result."
There also have been a few hydraulic and pressure flow issues with current customers.
According to its most recent assessment of needs, Little Hocking wants to add three booster stations. They would be added in the Watertown area, the Rocky Point/Stone Quarry Road area in Barlow Township and near Warren Local School District in Barlow Township. The school district would be slated to get a water storage tank, as well.
The association also needs waterline extensions within its current system to serve Boggy Hollow Road, Ellis Road, Myers Road, Roddy Road, Veto Road and Alden Gauge Road. If all of those were done, it would probably serve close to 40 more customers, Smith said.
The LHWA was visited last week by half a dozen Ohio Environmental Protection Agency officials who also stopped in Lowell to acknowledge major improvements coming to Lowell's water system thanks to OEPA funding.
LHWA officials had a large map marked to show the OEPA officials what's needed where, and why. They also had prepared an EPA handout with background, statistics and estimated costs. Smith said he was pleased with that visit.
"I thought they were actually interested in what we were telling them," he said.
During that visit, Rauch complimented the people who came before them in the water association.
"Our predecessors have done well," he said. "Historically, we have had small, incremental increases, not big spikes in rates. But we needed to keep the system funded. This one has been kept up, following the guidelines. There's no lead."
Rauch also noted that the association does have some cash reserves, about $5 million. But that doesn't make him feel comfortable. For one thing, the total estimated cost of what the association told the OEPA it needs tops $10.5 million. For another, he thinks the responsible thing to do is to keep the money in reserve in case there are future expensive issues, such as wellfield contamination. The LHWA and the OEPA agree that's not a certainty, but it isn't impossible, based on where the current wellfield is located.
Before the OEPA officials left, Rauch asked them to please look at the numbers that put LHWA over the 10,000 population limit that defines a "small" water system for the government agency. Rauch thinks there's a possibility that some investigation could legitimately put LHWA back in the "small" system for competition on funding projects, and that would be very helpful.
In the meantime, Smith agrees with Rauch about the $5 million the association has in reserves. It sounds good, but it really wouldn't go very far.
"You're only one catastrophe away from being broke," he said.