Friday, May 17, 2024
Being able to access a reliable and secure water source is vital to any community, and Vance Stephens, of Gatesville, helped lead the way for Coryell County's rural water systems to begin offering service more than 50 years ago.
During a March 22 meeting of the Gatesville Lions Club, Stephens talked about what was involved in helping make sure that rural residents had access to water. Stephens worked for the Farm Home Administration, a federal agency that operated from 1946 to 2006.
"We were on the ground floor of getting the rural water systems up and running," Stephens said. "The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) provided the financing to get things started. Congressman Bob Poage (of Waco, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1937-1978) was instrumental in getting the rural water systems started. He helped with the law that authorized the USDA to fund them."
Stephens moved to Coryell County in 1965 and recalls that a small water system in Turnersville had pipes made of asbestos cement.
"That was approved for potable water in the 1960s and has since been taken off the market," he said.
In 1966, plastic PVC pipes came on the market and that helped with the affordability.
"You can't live without water," Stephens said. "In my opinion, getting these water systems was one of the best things that happened to rural Texas."
He recalled that in the early days of the systems, the minimum bill was $6 a month "and people thought that was too much."
"After Turnersville, the second system was put in at Fort Gates," Stephens said. "With the use of PVC pipes it was a pretty good system. Then there was a system for Jonesboro. There had to be at least three people per mile for an area to be served. My goal when I moved here was putting water lines down every county road in Coryell County."
Stephens said the communities of Flat, Grove and Topsey then got systems, and the State School Water Supply system also provided service until the city of Gatesville took over infrastructure in that area.
"Finally we worked on one for Mountain, and believe me, that was an experience," he said. "You go down about six inches and it's solid rock. The rules required going down 18 inches with good soil. Digging a pipeline in solid rock is expensive."
While some rural residents had water service, others did not and had to rely only on their own wells.
Stephens said he worked hard to help everyone have better access to water service.
"The big story, the thing I was most proud of, was working to help all the people scattered between the rural water systems. They wanted water as much as the communities did."
In order to do that, Stephens led a push to consolidate some of those rural water systems so they could begin to reach unserved areas. Stephens said a community leader in Coryell City worked to help get water to more areas.
"With the mergers we were able to pick up people located between those systems," he said.
But just as things seemed to be going well, federal funding suddenly dried up.
"President Nixon withdrew funding," Stephens said. "We put the paperwork in a file cabinet because there were no funds for rural water. Then about two years later we got a call from the state saying to get the files down and the state would fund it. We worked diligently for two weeks to get that done."
With a new lifeline, services began to expand for rural residents wanting water service. But one man refused to cooperate and sign the necessary paperwork.
"That was fixing to kill a multi-million-dollar project and would keep about 400 people from getting water," Stephens said. "One Sunday I stopped at his parents' farm and explained the situation. His mother told me her son would be in my office at 8 a.m. Monday morning. The next day, his mother brought him to my office at 8 a.m., so we got it funded.
Even with state funding, the costs of installing those water lines could be a challenge. Stephens recalled that some contractors went bankrupt because of the costs.
One of the last rural communities to join the rural water systems was Mound.
"Mound was a community that I wasn't able to get interested in a rural water system," Stephens said. "I talked to their county committeeman and he said the people of the community weren't interested."
Because of Mound's sandy soil, it was easy to drill for a well and find water. But Stephens said the purity of that water was a concern that they were not initially aware of. He said the septic systems in the area contaminated the water.
Finally, when a representative of the state health department was able to prove that to the citizens by putting red dye in septic systems that showed up in their drinking water, they became convinced that a rural water system was the safer, healthier option, Stephens said.
While many of the county's residents had service, Stephens said it was a more difficult task to expand service to some western parts of the county.
"West of the Leon River it's hard to find a source for good drinking water for people living in Pearl, Purmela and King. We were finally able to do that with the Multicounty system."
Stephens said the city of Hamilton wanted to run a line from Lake Proctor to their community. Stephens told them his agency would help get that done under one condition — that they would agree to sell water to serve the Multicounty system.
He said he is proud of his role of helping make sure county residents have access to the water.
"Wells started failing in the 1980s, and that's when Gatesville started getting water from the lake (Lake Belton)," he said. "Water is a precious thing."
