BEE BRANCH, Ark. — People in Bee Branch are now waiting for the town's water system to return to normal levels after going several days without.
Sheila Turner, who moved to Bee Branch 12 years ago, told THV11 that the issues are nothing new for her. Despite that, the latest incident comes at an inconvenient time as people prepare for the holidays.
"We'll be without water for two days then we're under a boil order," Turner said. "Seems like we're under a boil order all the time."
The issues began over the weekend as people in the area were left once again without water.
"No showers, you can't do anything you're just at a stand still," Turner said.
That "stand still" lasted for close to two days while officials worked to identify and fix the problem. While the towns wait to get access to water again, homeowners took to Facebook to express their concerns towards the ongoing problem — looking for answers.
"They had an eight inch water break yesterday [which] feeds between pressure plane and pressure plane, and when it went down, their tanks failed, and then everyone south of that tank was out of water," said Clinton Water Department Manager William Hinchey.
Hinchey told THV11 that Bee Branch only has two employees out in the field which acts to about 1,400 clients. Throughout the years, the rural community has faced a number of issues — causing homeowners to experience little to no water.
"It's an old system and money's been an issue for a while, so they have been trying to keep up with the system but it hasn't been making a whole lot of improvements," Hinchey said.
Through these issues, Hinchey said Bee Branch has worked to implement solutions for roughly a year and a half. In that time, they've started a regionalization project to merge with Clinton's Water System.
It's just the first step in finding an overall solution to a problem that's been around for years.
"We're gonna redo some of the tanks, or actually all the tanks here in Bee Branch," Hinchey said. "They're gonna get new meters, we're gonna do a meter project throughout the system."
Bee Branch is one of many communities across Arkansas who have faced water issues.
This comes after Gov. Sanders announced an additional $204 million in financial assistance for water and wastewater projects that will be distributed among 45 "entities" around the state.
Hinchey stated that while Bee Branch and Clinton were not listed as recipients, they will still were able to apply for state funds.
"We actually qualified for that money," Hinchey said. "They went ahead and put it in last November and turned in the ANRC for some of that State Revolving Fund money and they actually were awarded some. They were awarded $4 million and in that, they qualify for 75% forgiveness."
As a result, Hinchey said their funds have already been approved and they have until August 2025 to access them. From there, they have three years to use them.
For now though, Hinchey said they're focused on helping people during the holidays.
"Just know that we are going to be on call. Even on thanksgiving, the water offices are open, but the guys are still out in the field."