DELTA TO VOTE TUESDAY ON WELL IMPROVEMENTS

DELTA -- Detergent alone won't get white clothes white in Delta.

What's needed is a new well to provide water to the Cape Girardeau County town of 500 people, says Mayor Gary Anderson.

Voters on Tuesday will be asked to approve a $330,000 revenue bond issue and enact a half-cent, capital improvements sales tax. A simple majority is needed for passage of both issues.

The measures would finance construction of a new well, a pump house and a water line from the new well to the existing water tower.

The existing well needs to be repaired, but that can't occur until a new well is built, Anderson said.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources says the town needs two wells. The existing well is 32 years old. The filters on the old well were designed to last 10 years, Anderson said.

It goes down only 110 feet, adding to the city's water quality problem. The new well would extend down 1,200 feet. Water from the current well is high in iron and manganese. "The water dirties your white clothes, especially," the mayor said. The water at times can turn white clothes a dark brown."That's how bad it has gotten," he said.

In the past month, the city has started adding a chemical to the water before it goes into the holding tower in an effort to address the problem. The DNR approved the use of the chemical, Anderson said.

But he said that's only a temporary solution. "It's not a fix-all."Anderson said the water problem has grown worse over the years. "This is a serious situation," he said.

If the two measures pass Tuesday, the city can proceed with building a new well.

The project would be bid. Construction likely wouldn't start until next June and take two to three months to complete, Anderson said.

Once that is done, the city could look to upgrade the old well.

The proposed sales tax would be a permanent tax. Anderson said it could be used to fund other improvements once the new well is installed, including repairing the old well.

Even with a half-cent sales tax, there isn't any guarantee the city won't have to raise water rates in the future to cover costs, the mayor said.

Delta has applied for a state grant of $230,000. But even if that grant were received, the city still would have to come up with $100,000 from the proposed sales tax, Anderson said.

There isn't any assurance that the city will receive a grant. "It could take years," the mayor said.

The city can't afford to wait, he said. "We are really running out of options."