Ardmore businesses, residents struggle through water shortage

ARDMORE, Ala. (WAFF) — Water issues continue to plague Ardmore residents and businesses. Some are staying closed and taking a hit, while others are staying open and battling through the shortage.

After several days of water issues in Ardmore, the pressure levels are back to normal. But a boil water advisory is still in effect.

This chaotic situation was made public on Sunday, when Ardmore Water Department was cut off from Limestone County Water Authority. The water authority later said Ardmore took too much water from them.

Some businesses had low levels of water pressure. Others, like Elk River Health and Nursing Center, say they didn’t have water at all.

Administrator Kurt Holm says they bought 300 gallons of water just for the toilets alone, because two gallons per flush stacked up quickly with their 50-60 patients. The city also brought them gallons of drinking water.

Some employees say they worked through the night to make sure the residents were okay.

“There was very little inconvenience for [the patients],” Holm said. “There was more of a big inconvenience for the staff because they had to do a lot of extra work, which they did a great job.”

Elk River stayed open, but other businesses in town — some big chains like McDonald’s and local spots like Mildred’s and JJ’s Coffee and More — have been closed for days.

JJ Coffee’s owner Jamie Jordan says she’s tired of these recurring woes. A similar thing happened in 2023, when she had to close her business for 11 days.

Jordan says this doesn’t just cost her thousands of dollars a day; these recurring issues create long-lasting negative perceptions.

“That directly affects your businesses — not just me, but the other restaurants in town,” Jordan said. “I can’t compete with that. I cannot combat negative views on the water department.”

She says the water department didn’t communicate its issues well two years ago, and they didn’t this time around either.

One resident, Theresa Weir, also believes the water department should communicate much better.

She says that outside of Facebook, many people haven’t gotten a single update, leaving others who don’t use social media out of the loop.

“I think that’s the reason that people here get so upset is because of the lack of communication. They will not communicate with us,” Weir said. “We love this place, and we just want people to be able to enjoy their time here and us to know what’s going on.”

“We needed to have done this yesterday,” Jordan added. “I understand it’s not a quick process, but it needs to be something… we can’t have the same problem in less than two years. That’s crazy.”

Ardmore Water Department told WAFF 48 they also had a significant leak in their main well, which has since been fixed. Superintendent Wayne Miller says Alabama Rural Water is coming to Ardmore next week to conduct a leak detection survey.

Miller says that per protocol, bacteriological samples were taken from their water to Huntsville Utilities’ water quality lab for further analysis. But he expects the boil water advisory to end Thursday afternoon.

He added that they’re also drilling other wells in hopes that these issues won’t come up again.

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