Rogers Road community fighting for cleaner water

Henry Johnson’s children refuse to drink the water that flows under their house on Rogers Road.

“We have had to drink bottled water ever since the kids found out the water is contaminated,” Johnson said. “They don’t want to drink it.”

Johnson was recently chosen as one of eight potential recipients of a $75,000 community development block grant to connect houses in the Rogers Road community to public water lines. The historically black and low-income neighborhood does not have access to town’s municipal services because it is not within the town’s boundaries.

If the state grant application is denied, the county has no stated future plans for the Rogers Road community regarding public water access, Orange County Housing and Community Development Director Tara Fikes said.

An Orange County Health Department survey earlier this year revealed that nine of 11 wells in the Rogers Road community are contaminated and do not meet Environmental Protection Agency standards.

The findings followed a 2009 survey by the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health that found evidence of fecal contamination and E. coli bacteria in the drinking water.

“The water needs to be fixed if it ain’t safe,” said Johnson, who has lived in the community for three years.

“I can’t afford to build my own well. I’m just trying to do the right thing.”

The Rev. Robert Campbell, co-chairman of the Rogers-Eubanks Coalition to End Environmental Racism, and David Caldwell, the Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association project director, have been working to get the community connected to public water service since 2007.

“The ones who have qualified for the grant are very excited and happy about it,” Caldwell said. “It will definitely improve their quality of life.”

Campbell said neighborhood leaders used the Clean Water Act to push for a grant and prove the water was out of compliance with national standards.

“Our goal is to connect every house to public water if they want it,” Campbell said. “This is just the tip of the iceberg.”

The county chose to apply for a state grant to fund the project Oct. 29 following a public hearing. The houses that were chosen had to be 80 percent below the median income and have access to an existing line without an extension.

Even if the application for a state grant is approved, it would take 15 months to connect the houses to public water lines,

The county will hear if the application is accepted within 30 to 60 days.

Caldwell, who has lived in the community since he was eight years old, said he didn’t grow up with public water access.

“When I was growing up, you couldn’t wash your clothes or drink the water. It smelled bad,” Caldwell said.

“To know that people still don’t have basic access to water in our country and that the people who do have access don’t want to help them is very depressing.”

Campbell said he and Caldwell are also applying for a $50,000 Pepsi Refresh Project grant to fund other projects in the Rogers Road community.

“If we get denied we will continue pursuit,” Campbell said. “There is some money out there somewhere.”

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