By Terry L. Hapney, Jr.
The Ironton Tribune

It was standing room only for the inaugural “Water for Waterloo” meeting on August 16.
David M. Lucas, Ph.D., president of the Lawrence County Rural Water District, said around 75 people attended the meeting designed to gauge interest from Waterloo property owners in bringing potable water to their properties.
Lucas said 100% of attendees “are completely energized and completely for doing whatever they need to do to bring water to the Waterloo area.”
Hearing such promises from officials in the past for years now, Lucas said originally these people were skeptical.
“This time we had good testimony that we had done the Macedonia project, so they felt confident this was going to happen,” he said.
One property owner is from Las Vegas. Lucas said he gave “an energetic talk about this being a good idea, what needed to be done and this would be very helpful.”
“He’s a guy who purchased a property there and realized it didn’t have water,” Lucas said. “He has worked in water all his life. He said, ‘I want this water. I know it’s important.’ He has a different perspective that is helpful.”
All of those in attendance were enthusiastic and helpful, Lucas said. He said the fire departments had representation there.
“They want this to happen,” Lucas said. “It was a much more powerful and energized meeting than we’ve had in the past with the other project.”
Other officials in attendance include trustees of Symmes Township and Lawrence County Commissioner DeAnna Holliday.
“She has been a real supporter for bringing water to Lawrence County,” Lucas said. “She has been involved since ground level on the Macedonia project. She has been involved since we’ve started this second project.”
The next step, according to Lucas, is to test all the wells in Waterloo. Lucas said those in attendance assured him the well water there is tainted with listeria and other bacteria.
“We’re pretty sure the tests will come back with toxins in the water,” Lucas said. “We’ll turn that in. We’ll turn in all the grants, too.”
Lucas said the testing will be done quickly. There are people lined up to ensure it is done in a scientific fashion. Lucas called to get the lab testing kits.
“I’ll expect them to tell us that the collection will be done in a month,” he said. “It will take a month to get the results back. Then we’ll be on to step two, three and four. I think this will go faster than Macedonia because we know our way around.”
For the longest time, people had the attitude that nothing will ever change—that they’ll never get water, according to Lucas.
“I think when they saw this happen in Macedonia, they realized it could happen for other places,” he said. “All of the officials who attended said as soon as we finish this, we will move on to get potable water for everyone in Lawrence County who wants it.”
The petition signed during the meeting—names and addresses of those who want water— will go to Hecla Water. It will also accompany grant applications, other requests for funding and go to the Ohio EPA.
Lucas said while the turnout for the meeting was strong, there were some who indicated others wanted to come but there were high school football games that night.
“They couldn’t come,” he said. “They asked if they could take the petition for them to sign. That’s what we did. I think when we finish, we will have close to 100 signatures of households. That’s good. It’s about twice as many as Macedonia.”