LONOKE, Ark. — Rural communities across Arkansas have spent months and even years with a lack of clean and quality water.
These circumstances have caused a long list of issues for community members, even forcing some to go to extensive lengths in efforts of accessing the resource that we all need to survive.
Throughout Arkansas, many rural areas continue to deal with water issues, with some even seeing water leakage due to old infrastructure.
"We had massive amounts of water loss due to leakage," Clarendon Water Manager David Parrish said. "We've had bad lead and copper samples due to old piping that had massive amounts of lead and it was just one problem after a consistent problem ... and [it] just had us in a financial chaos."
Unfortunately, situations like this aren't that uncommon. It's something that Dennis Sternberg, CEO of Arkansas Rural Water Association (ARWA), has noticed. He said that it's a bigger problem than many people recognize.
"We have an aging infrastructure of water and wastewater facilities," he said. "As they age and have not been maintained, a lot of them, there's a need for upgrades to stay up and stay in compliance with the EPA regulations and Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality."
These concerns are now in front of state leaders. On Wednesday, Gov. Sanders announced an additional $204 million in funding for more than 45 areas that are in need of updates.
According to Gov. Sanders, "$145,025,170.62 will be provided through loans, while $59,167,217.38 will be offered as grants and loans with principal forgiveness."
"Our system, some of our piping that we took out of the ground has had the date of [1945 and 1943] stamped on it," Parrish said.
The funds announced by the governor will help to upgrade dated infrastructure in rural Arkansas communities, such as the 50 year old piping in Clarendon.
Sternberg told THV11 that the ARWA received a $129,000 grant from the Clean Water Revolving Fund. With those funds, they will be able to support on-site technicians.
While Sternberg is grateful to be a recipient of the grant, he said that it will take time for improvements to be made and that residents won't see change until one or two years.
"Things are going to change," he said. "Things will get better for that system to be more efficient, better operated, but it'll take time to make that happen."
For a full list of recipients of Gov. Sanders' funding and the corresponding amounts, you can click here.