Last July US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack visitedthe rural Tulare County community of Cameron Creek to announce drought aid. Now months later, Valley Public Radio’s Ezra David Romero reports the community just got their taps turned on.
After nine months without water many of the residents of Cameron Creek are finally able to turn on their taps and have water flow out of the faucet.
That’s thanks to state and federal aid funneled through the neighboring town of Farmersville and the nonprofit Self-Help Enterprises.
Rick Overby is in the process of digging a trench from his home to the street so he can hook into a new water main connected to the City of Farmersville. His household well went dry last July.
RICK OVERBY: “There’s just this incredible sense of relief. I don’t know if you can imagine what it’s like to wake up one day and you can’t take a shower and know you can’t take a shower in the near future.”
Late last year the City of Farmersville began construction on a water main extending to the community, a project that’s been mulled over for almost two years. Denise England is in charge of long term water solutions for Tulare County.
ENGLAND: “For this quite little town of Cameron Creek they’ve had a whole lot of activity, but now they have water. They’re getting turned on one-by-one.”
Now that the water line is installed all homeowners in Cameron Creek have to do is apply for a permit and provide plumbing to the water main.