Union County family’s well went dry, so they’re running a hose from the neighbor’s house

UNION COUNTY, N.C. — Asheka Allen told Action 9 attorney Jason Stoogenke her family’s well wasn’t working.

“It is a basically dead dry well,” she said. “To not have running water is ridiculous.”

She says she spent thousands trying to fix it, but it didn’t help much.

So get this: her neighbor was nice enough to let Allen run a long hose from their house to hers. That’s right. She uses their water around the clock. She says they split the water bill.

Hardly a long-term solution and the idea of digging another well doesn’t thrill her. “I’m angry. I’m upset. I feel at a loss as a mother trying to provide a home for my children.”

“If you look at the houses behind us all here, they have county water,” she said.

Allen would like Union County water as well. She says she asked County leaders what it would take to extend the line to her street. Stoogenke did too.

Union County told Action 9:

“We are aware of Ms. Allen’s desire to connect to the County’s water system. Just last week, the County Manager was checking into options and has since emailed her the options available to her, which include:

1. Ms. Allen could coordinate with her neighbors and split the cost and effort of pursuing a special assessment, which includes obtaining easements for a public line to be extended down Stack Road.

2. Or Ms. Allen can pursue connecting to our system through a private service line.

Either option will take a considerable amount of time and expense of the property owner(s) because this is not a utility-funded project."

Allen says the County emailed her a similar response, also saying she had two options.

• Option One: The County would extend the line to her entire street -- not just her property. After all, some of her neighbors are also on well water. The homeowners would all foot the bill... in the form of higher taxes over roughly 5-8 years.
• Option Two: Allen could ask other neighbors -- those already ‘on’ County water -- for an easement to extend a ‘private’ line to her land. She’d have to pay the full tab herself.

She’s asking the company that built her home if it would help pay for either option.

Rocket Mortgage breaks down the pros and cons of buying a house on well water in general pretty clearly:

The pros:

• No water bill each month.
• If the municipal water supply has a problem, it doesn’t impact you.
• Your water may even taste better -- more natural.

The cons:

• Wells are expensive to build.
• You may be worried about water quality since no utility is monitoring it.
• You need regular maintenance to keep your water safe to drink.
• It could be harder to sell your home.
• Like you see in this case: there’s always the risk of it running dry.

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