Lake Hills Community Brings Water Issues Before Water Company, Engineers Called In To Find Solution

By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor

A large group of residents from the Lake Hills neighborhood attended the Jan. 28 meeting of the Dade County Water and Sewer Authority to voice their frustrations and urge the water company to find and fix the issues that are causing water outages in the neighborhood. Alex Case (City of Trenton mayor), Don Townsend (Dade County executive), Dr. William Pullen Jr. (District One county commissioner), and Bobby Cloud (distribution manager) all attended the meeting.

The very western edge of the neighborhood (Lake Hills Drive that dead ends to the north and Lake Hills Place that dead ends to the south) has had inconsistent water pressure and numerous water outages in the last two or more years. One neighbor only noticed issues in the last few months, another cited 18 months of problems, and others cited two years of problems.

Cheryl McGee spoke first, noting that after she began having routine problems with water in November, she called the water company, but the problems persisted. Then, she called neighbors and found that she wasn’t alone. “We’re weary of not having water.”

She reported calling the water company on Veterans Day 2024, but when she followed up the next day, there was no record of her call.

Another man reported that for nearly two years, their home has been losing water several times a month, sometimes even weekly. This family has lived in this house for 11 years, but the problems only started about 18-24 months ago. He said, “I have a tub full of water right now so that we can flush the toilet when the water’s off.”

He later added that when the water went out over Christmas 2022, he called the water company, but only one employee was working, and no one was sent out to investigate the problem. “I’m a journeyman lineman with the power company. When one house is out of lights—just one—my phone rings, and I drive into work…All of Lake Hills is calling that they don’t have water on the Christmas holiday, but nobody got bothered to call anybody out.”

A woman named Martha then spoke, also highlighting Christmas 2022 as an especially distressing time, and her neighbors agreed. “It’s severely more than a nuisance,” she said. All reiterated that they never know when they’ll have water, when the pressure will be low, or when it will be out completely.

Martha said that the water company has been lovely every time she’s called, but the neighborhood has been offered a handful of explanations that are not getting to the root of the problem. She said, “It would be helpful if we didn’t have misinformation of what’s going on so that people aren’t looking for the real problem.”

There are three repeating answers that the neighbors have heard from the water company.

One: The north end of the county is using a lot of water, and/or everybody is dripping their faucets, so the tanks are low. (However, Lake Hills didn’t have problems during the Jan. 2025 freeze when everyone was leaving their faucets dripping, and the problems continue year-round, not only during cold weather and droughts.)

Two: Homes need to install pumps if they’re at the top of a hill. (However, McGee has had a pump at the top of her hill for 20 years but hasn’t had problems until the last few months. Martha was told she needed a pump, but she hasn’t installed one, yet sometimes her water will be fine and other times it will be out.) Several residents and Tony Payne (District Three representative) noted that if pumps are running when there’s no water supply, the pumps will burn up.

Three: There’s been a break in a line and/or the company is working on a line in the area. While residents understand that sometimes this may be the case, it doesn’t account for all of the continued outages.

Another couple said their problems (which started around Christmas 2023) have been much milder. Sometimes they have low pressure, but other times they have no water at all.

Milton Owensby noted that he previously served on the Water and Sewer Authority and has lived in Lake Hills for over 30 years. He said the water pressure has never been great in that time, but he was told that it was because his house was at the end of the line. However, four houses have been built to the north of his home in the intervening time.

Owensby said, “We schedule when we take showers because you can’t run the shower and turn on the dishwasher. You can’t do two appliances at the same time.” He added that the water company has been helpful and friendly every time he’s called.

Another couple reported that they live right next to the tank which overflows and runs down the road. They described it as much more than just a small leak.

Townsend and Case both noted that they had recently been contacted by residents about the issues, and they agree that this problem must be addressed.

Eddie Cantrell (water board chairman) was recently brought into the loop, but the other board members had not heard about the issues. Cantrell reported that he asked Elizabeth Zeller (general manager) to have Ladd Environmental come in to look at the system and meet with the residents. American Tank Maintenance will also come in to figure out what’s wrong with the tank.

Martha said, “I’m surprised at how surprised you guys are, because we’ve been calling for years.”

Allen Townsend (District One representative) noted that while he hears from citizens about problems here and there, he hasn’t heard localized reports about unsolved problems. Cantrell reported that after a Lake Hills resident contacted him not too long ago, he reached out to others on the street.

One resident suggested that the board review the work order log each month so that continued problems like this might be caught even when residents haven’t contacted the board.

Case weighed in, noting the concerns about fire protection and agreeing that the engineers need to come in. “We know it’s an aging system, just like we know we have an aging sewer system.”

Cloud also weighed in, not offering input on what the problem might be but mentioning that elevation does make the supply in the area a challenge. He reported that a six-inch line and a two-inch line supply Lake Hills.

Zeller and Cantrell assured the residents that they will be in touch and work quickly to get the issues resolved.

The board then heard from another resident, James Eckhardt, who lives off of GA-299. Eckhardt said that prior to moving to Dade three years ago, he had never experienced this level of water inconsistency, noting that he’s lived in a number of different places. Of boil advisories, he said, “I don’t know if they’re normal here, but they hadn’t been normal to me prior to being here.”

Eckherdt said he and his neighbors have repeatedly lost water, and once the problem is fixed, they have water for a few months before the problem returns. Cloud explained that in this case, it’s a simple (but expensive) matter of needing a line replacement. The company has been repairing the same line that breaks in different spots each time.

The authority thanked Eckherdt for bringing the problem to their attention. There was no further discussion about replacing that line.

Moving on, under New Business, Zeller reported that the authority’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) remaining balance is $930,000. The authority plans to use $127,000 of this for upgrades at I-24 and GA-299.

As a reminder: SPLOST funds can only be used for capital improvements/new infrastructure; they cannot be used for repairs on existing infrastructure. While an existing line can’t be repaired with SPLOST, should it need to be upgraded to a larger line, SPLOST can cover that.

Case mentioned the city’s pursuit of Georgia Environmental Finance Authority’s (GEFA) WaterFirst designation and the major task of updating ordinances to meet federal standards.

Next up, the authority is hosting a meeting with Ladd Environmental and Lake Hills residents on Feb. 5 at Trenton City Hall at 5 p.m.