On Your Side: Clean, potable water will soon be available for customers of the Wadsworth Water District

FAIR GROVE, Mo. (KY3) - A Fair Grove water crisis has neighbors demanding answers after years of dry taps, low pressure, and boil orders. We first told you about this story last year, but neighbors say the ongoing system issues are now affecting their health and their pocketbooks.

“Right now we have a temporary well set up. We’ve been on a boil order for the last 2 months,” said Tracy Archer.

This is a familiar frustration for neighbors on the Wadsworth Water system in Fair Grove. We first met Archer last year when the system failed.

“It’s been 2 years now that we’ve been going through this. We didn’t even know there was an issue until we’d been here for 2 months. The water went out one day. We were like, why don’t we have water? Well, I haven’t ever had a bill. Let’s go find out what’s going on,” said Archer.

Archer says the system, built in the 1970’s, has not only forced her to buy or boil water, but has also caused costly damage to her home.

“I had to replace $1400 of plumbing 2 months ago because we have such low water pressure; everything backed up in the house and got stuck, and there you go,” she explained.

The lack of clean, reliable water is also taking a heavy toll on her family.

“My son is ill and has a rare form of cancer. It’s complicated things with his health,” Archer said.

Wadsworth Water’s volunteer president, Josiah Cloud, says the board has been focused on a solution.

“A water system without a working pressure tank, you got to have pressure in the lines in order to have pressure in homes,” he said.

Cloud says the board financed a refurbished pressure tank costing more than $30,000. With a fresh coat of paint, Cloud hopes this will be a long-term fix.

“Honestly, it should last another 15 to 30 years, which would give us time to be able to get some of those delinquent accounts back and running,” said Cloud. “I’d like to make some headway for our own savings and get it back to an even keel.”

But after years of instability, Archer remains skeptical.

Archer said, “Just to be able to depend on water and not know, am I going to run out next week? Am I going to have a problem this winter when it freezes up, and nothing is done about it?”

Cloud says the water is currently being tested by the Department of Natural Resources. He expects to get the all-clear soon, at which time the boil order will be lifted, and the system will be up and running.

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