Jackson Free Press

On one side of Robert Martin's one-story brick home stands a tall water storage tank, on the other a water softener and a cactus: emblems of Martin's search for potable water. A month ago, Martin and a handful of neighbors in rural Sunflower County made national news, when ABC Nightly News devoted two minutes to their six-year fight for what many would consider a basic resource and right.

Martin, 71, moved to this shaded section of Ruleville-Drew Road—known as Tamberge Clark—in 1978, when only three families were living there. Those families were using shallow wells to draw water. When Martin moved in, he dug a 800-foot well and let the other families on his street use the water.

A Korean War veteran, Martin worked in maintenance at Baxter Laboratories in Cleveland until 2001 and watched as the handful of houses grew, slightly, to 10. With each new arrival, a new house or trailer began drawing on Martin's deep well. Eventually, in spring 2003, the well "went bad," as Martin puts it, and began pumping sand.

Martin installed three separate filters on his water line to keep the sand out. Even still, he had to clean the filters every day or the sediment would completely block the pipes. Meanwhile, he began a years-long search for a better water source. That search led him to the obstacles faced by many water-less rural communities and households in Mississippi.

Any public water supply can extend service to an area, if it chooses to. As Martin learned, though, no nearby water system—not the Sunflower County Water Association, whose lines stop just over a mile away from Martin's house, nor the City of Ruleville—found his community profitable enough to extend service there.

Roughly 1,250 different water associations provide water to the 97 percent of Mississippians who rely on public water. Those private organizations decide what areas to serve based on cost, which makes rural communities a far more expensive investment than more densely populated regions.

"You can't force a water system to go serve an area," says Keith Allen, director of water supply for the Mississippi Department of Health. "You can give them incentives. A lot of times, they're more likely to get a grant if they're picking up underserved areas."

The Department of Health administers a revolving fund that offers low-interest loans to water systems for expanding or updating their infrastructure. That fund, like many other grant programs at the state and federal level, moves slowly, however. Emergency loans, which take 30 to 60 days to process, are available through the program, but neither Ruleville Mayor Shirley Edwards nor Sunflower County Supervisor Barry Bryant took advantage of them, despite Martin's entreaties.

In the meantime, Martin installed a new, 100-foot well that drew exceptionally hard water, suitable only for bathing and cleaning.

The shallow well's water leaves mineral deposits on sinks and will rust fixtures if untreated, so Martin bought a water softener. Once a week, he treks almost 50 miles to Greenville to buy a bag of salt for the machine. He shares the untreated well water with several neighbors, including Jenise Davis.

"When I have my grandchildren out here, I have to constantly tell them, 'Don't drink the water,' " Davis says.

Twice a week, Davis drives her hatchback to her son's house and fills 10 one-gallon jugs with drinking water. Carrying the water into her house is a struggle, she admits, with a ruptured disc in her back.

In April 2009, Martin reached his breaking point. "I couldn't get no action from nobody local, and I thought somebody on the news might help," he says.

Martin called ABC News' national office. The story that aired July 14 brought calls to Martin's home from as far away as Boston and attention from the Mississippi Center for Justice and the Washington, D.C.-based Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

National attention has had a remarkable effect on Martin's elected leaders.

"I can't tell you how many e-mails and phone calls I've gotten from all over the country from people wanting to help," Barry Bryant told the Jackson Free Press Aug. 20.

Martin partly blames Bryant for the inaction on his requests for water, but Bryant insists that he was hampered by economics.

"We couldn't get a water association to take this thing over," Bryant said Aug. 31.

On Friday, Aug. 21, the City of Ruleville finally submitted a grant application to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which Trina George, state director of rural development indicated that USDA would accept.

USDA has agreed to provide $414,000 to extend water service to 80 households near Ruleville, including Martin's community, George told the Jackson Free Press. The project will add 12 miles of water line and cost roughly $677,000, George said. Sunflower County will pony up $25,000, and the Mississippi Development Authority and Delta Regional Authority will provide the remaining $238,000, George said. The City of Ruleville will be providing the actual water supply.

Even with funding in place, George cautioned, required environmental studies will push the project's start date back 45 to 60 days.

Martin is more optimistic about his community's chances of getting potable water soon, but he remains skeptical that local government can act quickly.

"I think if anyone else has been scratching as long as long as we have ... they've probably cut their throat about now," Martin says. "But I've said I'll be patient. I'm going to wait it out."