Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Expensive Water

An article in the NYT, penned by James Dao, alerts us to a water issue in Zanesville, OH.  Specifically, a “hollow” on Coal Run Road.  It seems the 17 residents of the hollow just received hookups to city water at the cost of $730,000.00.  That’s $42,914.17 per residence.  In Dao’s article, we are led to believe that the main reason these folks living on Coal Run Road did not have city water is because they are, black.

For what it is worth, I could have saved Zanesville some serious money.  They should’ve drilled wells.  Granted, the article does mention that “a few residents” on Coal Run Road did drill wells but the water tables that were tapped provided bad water. The wells should then have been drilled deeper.  You ask, well, how then would drilling wells have saved money, especially if the wells needed to be drilled deeper?

I have a 300 foot deep well on my property in northern Michigan.  The cost of this well was $5,000.00.  Calculating from this cost, let’s assume that the wells that could have been drilled for the residences along Coal Run Road may have needed to be drilled to a depth of 700 feet to tap good water.  At a cost of $16.66 per drilling foot, based on my well cost, each individual well for the 17 residences would have cost $11,662.00.  Let’s add another $2,000.00 per well for unexpected drilling challenges, which would bring the cost of each well to $13,662.00.  And, because we’re looking at this as if this is a service the state should provide, let’s round the cost of each well to $15,000.00 for a total expense of $255,000.00.  If Zanesville would have drilled wells for the residences, they could have saved taxpayers $475,000.00.

This water issue has nothing to do with race.  It is simply a manifestation of individuals feeling that the state should provide them sustenance, or in this case, water.

Dao’s article is titled “Ohio Town’s Water at Last Runs Past a Color Line."

Via Atrios.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/17 at 05:33 AM
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