ANSON COUNTY, N.C. — Residents in rural Anson County said a dayslong water outage has highlighted long-standing infrastructure problems, leaving some without running water and others under a boil-water advisory as county leaders work to restore service and find long-term solutions.
Wadesboro has water, but parts of the county are still without it.
People are glad to see that the county brought in an engineering firm on Thursday to figure out how to pump more water to those areas. However, more help is needed.
Farmer Terry Drye, of Burnsville, said he must walk his cows to a nearby pond because the water is out in his pasture. It’s been a struggle to get water to the area.
It’s a problem Drye contributes to the water’s aging infrastructure.
“We’re on the very far end of the county, and we’re over a hill, so when the water goes down, there isn’t enough pressure to push the water over to our side,” Drye said. “We’ve been having pressure issues for a long time.”
The water outage in Anson County started on Tuesday. Those who have water again are boiling it.
The county said a water main broke before they could make permanent repairs to a leak on U.S. Highway 74, east of Wadesboro.
It was fixed early Wednesday morning, but water is slowly returning to everyone.
Former Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who is running for U.S. Senate, made a stop in Anson County on Thursday for his “Make Stuff Cost Less” campaign trail.
Cooper told Channel 9 that he’s aware of the infrastructure issues.
The former governor said he helped provide $2 billion to improve those issues statewide, but in the wake of this week’s situation, it falls short of what is really needed.
“When I get to the United States Senate, I will work hard to try and coordinate efforts with the state government to make sure there is more funding for these infrastructure systems because these communities cannot afford it. They don’t have the tax base to afford it,” Cooper said.
Anson County officials said they don’t have the funds to support projects and hope a new water rate increase will help.
Burnsville resident Lori Burns Bennett was at Cooper’s event.
She said the outage affected her elderly parents, and she supports any effort that can help.
“We just need water,” Bennett said. “We need help, and it doesn’t matter whether you are Republican, Democratic, independent. Right now, we have to come together.
As part of that $2 billion that Cooper mentioned, Anson County received $6 million in the 2023 budget for a regional water or wastewater project.
The county said that money was used toward a new water filtration system.
Channel 9 reached out to Cooper’s opponent in the race for Senate, Michael Whatley, and we haven’t heard back. Whatley has a campaign stop scheduled for Friday in Indian Trail.
Channel 9 will be there to ask him about Anson County’s water crisis.
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