The private well maintenance issues that have deprived hundreds of Athens residents consistent access to water and forced the public library located in the Pinewoods neighborhood to shut its doors almost twice a week for more than a year are still ongoing, but a new 120-gallon reservoir tank has greatly improved the situation, at least for the library.
The Pinewoods neighborhood in north Athens gets its water from a private well through an aging network of pipes that frequently break, causing the need for repairs. During the repair process, which can take hours, water access for the entire area – including the library and over a hundred homes – must be shut off due to the way the system is designed.
This has caused inconsistent access to water for hundreds of Athens residents. It has also meant that the Pinewoods library, a source of vital public services including internet, tutoring, translation assistance and English language classes, has been forced to operate on a limited and inconsistent schedule. When their water isn’t running, the library must close due to sanitation concerns.
While the library still occasionally needs to close due to lack of water, its schedule is much more consistent these days thanks to a new 120-gallon reservoir tank. Pinewood Estates, the landlord for both the Pinewoods public library and the surrounding community, paid to install the tank in March in an effort to keep the library open.
The tank fills with water when it is available, forming a reservoir that can be drawn from when the water is shut off. 120 gallons is usually enough to keep the library open until the water line can be fixed. It has “greatly helped” the water situation there, according to Darcy Calia, public information officer of the Athens Regional Library System.
However, there have been some mechanical issues with the tank, which occasionally drains of water when the library needs it the most. Pinewoods Library Branch Manager Evelyn Rushing told APN that the library was forced to close twice in April due to a lack of water. That still represents a big improvement; water for the Pinewoods community was shut off about ten times that month, meaning the reservoir has allowed the library to remain open eight days in April when it would have otherwise closed.
Rushing says that Pinewoods Estates is attempting to find and repair the leak in the tank.
Rushing has other concerns about the water as well. For example, she feels that the water at the library is not safe to drink. Therefore, she relies on donations of bottled water from the nonprofit City of Refuge Athens so that library patrons can have access to water. City of Refuge also supplies bottled water for residents throughout the mobile home park.
Pinewoods residents have suffered through “boil water notices” in the past, but their water supply is permitted by the state as a safe drinking water source. The landlord performs monthly tests on the well water and has not had any health violations since 2019.
You can examine the monthly water quality tests for the Pinewoods neighborhood here.
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