Water providers struggling with supply among Elkton’s voluntary restrictions - WHSV

Water providers struggling with supply among Elkton’s voluntary restrictions

ELKTON, Va. (WHSV) - Water demand is high in parts of Elkton with some people waiting to get theirs. Independent providers said there is only one pump available at the spring they have access to.

“I’m not the only one, these other water haulers and it’s just one that we’re using. We have to wait in line, and it sometimes takes almost an hour to get one load of water,” Meadows Water Hauling’s Justin Meadows said.

Meadows gets water from Bear Lithia Spring which Mayor Gooden says is under the town’s control. Meadows said he has hauled water for a decade and has never seen a struggle like this.

“This is never happened before at all the years this to happen for them the town shutting the pumps off,” Meadows said.

Meadows said getting water should not be such a challenge.

“There’s enough water but that’s that issue. They have two pumps at the spring, but one shut down currently because of the drought that we’ve had rain and the springs running really good,” Meadows said.

The Town of Elkton understands the difficulties. Mayor Joshua Gooden said that the public works department has been trying to alternate pumps due to the high usage at Bear Lithia Spring.

Elkton’s Mayor Gooden clarified that, although it is not the water supply for the town, the Bear Lithia Spring was limited from new purchases of keys so nobody would run the spring dry.

He says the pumps operate at a certain level where one is higher than the other, but providers said it has them changing routine.

“I’ve had to haul through hand-dug wheels this year versus cisterns, and I’ve not had to do that in the previous years,” Meadows said.

Meadows has hauled water for a decade and does the best he can at this point.

“I tell my customers that I’ll get the water when I can as far as a timeframe,” Meadows said.

Various other towns have discontinued water-hauling privileges due to the extreme drought conditions.

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