White County seeking funds for cleaner water
By JANE GRILLO
For The Times

Andy Allen brushes her teeth in the morning with water out of a container.

She uses tap water only to flush toilets and wash her clothes since she was
diagnosed with
sarcoidosis, a chronic illness affecting the lungs, from her exposure to the
toxins in her
water.

"We've had many people who got cancer and the children have been sick, too," she
said.
"We had people from Emory (University) come out and look at our community's
health
situation. You just never realize how sick bad water can make you."

Allen and her 34 neighbors in the Bean Creek Community of White County have had
to use
containers of water for more than a year now because the wells in their
community tested
positive for extremely high levels of coliform, E. coli and lead.

Well water testing was recently performed by Paul Vendrell of the UGA
Agricultural and
Environmental Lab.

On Wednesday, White County Commissioners conducted a public hearing as part of
the
application process for a $200,000 no-interest Georgia Environmental Facilities
Authority
loan to help pay for a community well and water system.

The county has also applied for an additional $500,000 grant from GEFA.

The cost for the entire project is $1.2 million. Additional help came from a
donation of
land by Sautee-Nacoochee resident Walter Lumsden for a possible well site.

The remaining $700,000 will have to come from GEFA.

The effort is being led by the Friends of Bean Creek, an organization formed to
find a way
to get a new water system for this historic community.

Allen currently serves as president of the organization.

Cathy Harpe, a member of Friends of Bean Creek, got involved when she purchased
a
home in the Bean Creek area.

She has her own well, which was considered safe after tests, and works as office
manager
of the Sautee-Nacoochee Community Center.

Harpe's involvement stems from her worries about the health of her neighbors.
She works
with local and state agencies to help dig up resources to save this community.

Friends of Bean Creek was awarded a $500,000 Community Development Bloc Grant
from
the Georgia Department of Community Health last September. That grant is not
enough to
pay for the whole project, which includes fire protection and pipe system,
holding tank,
well testing and drilling and connection to homes.

While funding is being sought, the White County Water Authority transports water
into
Bean Creek every week in a 500-gallon "Buffalo" tank.

"The Water Authority must be sick of doing this by now," said Caroline
Crittenden, project
coordinator for the Bean Creek History Project and active Friends of Bean Creek
member,
said after Wednesday's hearing.

"They have to take the truck back to the water plant, sanitize it, then refill
and test the
water every week," she said. "This has been going on for a year."

Harpe told commissioners at the hearing that the tank is "extremely
inconvenient" for
residents who have to go back and forth with containers to collect water every
day.

The residents indeed are tired. Sabrina Dorsey said after the meeting, "If these
were
$300,000 homes the county would have already fixed this by now."

Harpe said that the application for the GEFA loan will go before that board in
late August.
She added that it is "not common for a community to begin work without a
commitment
from the grant agency."

"This is our top priority," said Bob Hirschi, chairman of the White County Water
Authority.
"If we could be sure we could get our money back, we'd start working now."

The project engineer said once it begins, the work could be completed in nine to
12
months.

So, while Bean Creek residents thirst for work to begin, Allen said her
neighbors will still
have to "pour Clorox in the bath for their children."

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Originally published Sunday, July 24, 2005