Giles County leaders looking to fix major water leak

PEMBROKE (WSLS 10) - Giles County leaders are taking the initiative to fix a water leak in the town of Pembroke.

They said thousands of gallons of water have been leaking for about a year due to old infrastructure.

The problem is forcing leaders to buy more water than is actually needed.

Now, a local organization is stepping up so customers wont have to pay extra on their bills.

Mary Kay Fenton, the town's administrative assistant, said the water distribution infrastructure is more than 30 years old and leaking.

She said the problem is that there's 21 miles of water-line, so it's difficult to track down exactly where the leaks are that's why workers are glad the Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project SERCAP, is helping out.

"The town is very appreciative of the leak detection meters. We're excited. This is going to afford the town many opportunities," Fenton said.

Instead of purchasing hundreds of thousand of gallons of water, they can use that money to plan for work on a façade initiative, like renovating the fronts of town buildings.

"We're doing our due diligence to take care of our natural resources," Fenton said.

SERCAP plans to install 13 leak-detection meters to specifically track down the leak with a $50,000 grant.

The overall goal is to reduce the amount of water the town purchases in half and save money, which in the long run could help stimulate revitalization and community development.

"To be able to help them overall, not just from an economic self-sufficiency standpoint but community development, it's going to feed into all their long-range plans it's going to be a great help," Andy Crocker with SERCAP said.

For more information about SERCAP click here http://sercap.org