it is a shocking and sobering reality that, given the degree of america\u2019s development, many american families in the twenty-first century do not have access to clean water \u2014 or water at all. for many rural communities around sewanee: the university of the south, a liberal arts university in tennessee, this is their daily reality.<\/p>\n
in two such enclaves, dancing fern road in marion county, and keith springs, obtaining tap water has been a decades-long battle. because of their rural location, and because many of the individuals who comprise these communities have meager monetary means, creating water infrastructure is much less economically feasible than it might be in other communities. but they face another challenge independent of their financial ability or rural situation: they live in the mountains.<\/p>\n
the rock formations which typify the cumberland plateau (where these communities are situated), as ben beavers, general manager of the sewanee utility district (sud) explains, are not water bearing. to drill a well requires drilling two to four-hundred feet deep.<\/p>\n
in the absence of easy solutions to the challenges that these communities face, haley tucker, a senior sustainability fellow at sewanee committed to environmental justice, has made it her aim to document and collect not only water samples but also stories and injustices, that communities local to sewanee face.<\/p>\n
\u201ci hope that by documenting and interviewing the trials that these rural community members face, i can bring their stories into public attention,\u201d said tucker. \u201cit is unacceptable that hundreds of families near sewanee and chattanooga don\u2019t have access to clean water \u2014 but i trust in the power of storytelling as a way to motivate change, and that is what my sustainability fellow project is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
\u201cthe story is that an e. coli contamination was the impetus for getting the people living near jumpoff road their water,\u201d explained beavers. jumpoff road was a site near sewanee without access to water, and this was in the early 1980s, a decade after the formation of the epa. the sud was spending money it didn\u2019t have. the sud went bankrupt until, years later, they raised rates by 80% and began charging jumpoff road residents a surcharge.<\/p>\n
\u201cas a resident of jumpoff, i think it was a great idea [to put in the jumpoff road infrastructure]. as a financial investment, it doesn\u2019t make any sense. but the sud isn\u2019t exactly a business. so sometimes if we can afford to, we need to do things that are in the public benefit as long as they don\u2019t bankrupt the utility.\u201d<\/p>\n
jumpoff road is a useful corollary to dancing fern road and keith springs \u2014 all three share similar financial, geographical, and geological challenges. but while jumpoff road is only a few miles removed from sewanee, keith springs and dancing fern road are both over 20 miles removed.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
\u201cwe will never get water to this neighborhood during your lifetime\u201d \u2014 this is, according to dancing fern road resident jan upton, what tennessee american water company representatives told her during a meeting she arranged with them and the mayor of jasper. dancing fern road is located on the cusp of the boundary to where tennessee american water company, the company who chattanooga contracts for their water infrastructure, should be supplying water.<\/p>\n
upton, determined to obtain water, hired a well digger who built a well over 600 feet deep, at a $9,000 price tag. upton was dismayed to find the well provided \u201cblack, thick, sulfur-smelling water\u201d to her home. she called the well digger she hired; he threatened to sue her; she let it go. she voiced her concerns unflinchingly in community-wide forums, and finally got water. yet, before long, upton was told her pipes had a leak and that it was her responsibility to fix it. she watched, frustratedly, as a new wealthy community developed across the highway and obtained water easily with their plentiful financial means.<\/p>\n
and finally, upton simply gave up.<\/p>\n
\u201cshe is now three months without water. she\u2019s been forced to pump water from a local spring on her father\u2019s land a half mile away. it\u2019s the best situation she has had since moving there, but as local spring water, it\u2019s not very safe,\u201d explained tucker. ben beavers echoed the safety risk of local spring water; he stated in his interview that local springs around the cumberland plateau have been documented as fecal or e. coli positive, and often full of iron due to surface influence.<\/p>\n
upton’s story, tucker stresses, is not an outlier, but an exemplar of the challenges residents in dancing fern road and keith springs face: a series of challenges so overwhelming that it is seemingly impossible not to give up.<\/p>\n
\u201cwe individually interviewed about ten people in keith springs,\u201d stated tucker, \u201cand when we asked them if they had city water, literally every one laughed. every one.\u201d<\/p>\n
these are just some of many stories of those who do not have access to clean, or any, tap water; the stories of those who, when they attempt to overcome their intimidating series of challenges, were left with no option but to give up and to lose all hope.<\/p>\n
\u201cthese are underserved communities who already face innumerable challenges. marion and franklin county, where dancing fern road and keith springs are respectively located, are adjacent to grundy county, the poorest county in tennessee,\u201d remarked tucker. only 11 percent of grundy county\u2019s denizens go on to obtain a bachelor\u2019s degree or higher. \u201cthe last thing that these communities should have to devote energy, time, and resources to is obtaining safe water for themselves and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
for the residents of these communities, and for all of us, these challenges seem altogether unsurpassable. but tucker is hopeful that, through devoting her own time and energy to sharing the stories of these communities, she can help to serve people and families who deserve, like any without clean water, one of their most basic human needs to be met.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
bibliography<\/p>\n
\u201cu.s. census bureau quickfacts: grundy county, tennessee.\u201d census bureau quickfacts<\/em>, united states census bureau, www.census.gov\/quickfacts\/grundycountytennessee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" faced with the daunting reality of water inaccessibility in rural tennessee, sewanee senior haley tucker turns to storytelling as a solution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9769,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5196,4914,4904],"tags":[322,81,37],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-11939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-past-storyfest","category-sustainability","category-water","tag-storytelling","tag-sustainability","tag-water"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n