Members of the public questioned the Marbury Water System board and subject-matter experts at a Monday meeting that followed weeks of residents decrying water restrictions and a now-failed petition attempt to remove board members for alleged negligence.
The public outrage began in May after Marbury Water System claimed that a supplier, Five Star Water Supply, was performing maintenance on a storage tank, which restricted how much the co-op could buy.
The subsequent water restrictions with hefty fines imposed on customers for violations led to discontent and speculation among residents. Additionally, residents began questioning the co-op’s management, stating that Marbury Water has only one functioning well and claiming that the co-op did not have a contract with Five Star, leaving residents high and dry when the water supplier was restricted due to maintenance.
One resident told 1819 News that the situation was “absolutely ridiculous” and that Marbury Water “has no freaking idea what they’re doing.”
The water restrictions have been relaxed, with the co-op asking residents to avoid watering yards or filling pools on weekends.
The outrage prompted a petition from co-op members to remove the board. The co-op’s bylaws require that 10% of members sign a petition to hold a special session for members to vote on removal.
The petition gained 400 signatures, well over the number required by the bylaws. However, the board rejected the petition, claiming that some signatures were forged, included repeat or invalid signatures, contained incomplete information, and that the bylaws limit signatures to one person per member household.
The criticism did not stop prior to Monday’s meeting. According to some residents, despite asking that the board meeting be moved to a larger venue in Pine Level for more attendance, the board opted to host the meeting at its office and limited it to only 20 residents who had to call ahead to express their desire to speak and to state what their question might be.
1819 News was informed in advance that Marbury Water would not allow media to attend the meeting, citing a desire to permit as many members as possible to attend.
The meeting was live-streamed on social media. However, frequent audio issues made the proceedings often difficult to hear. Engineers also detailed issues the system has had securing grants from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) for improvements and infrastructure expansion.
“We’re the engineers for 60 to 70 water systems in Alabama, and there’s like 800. So, a large majority of the systems in Alabama we work for. This is a problem that everyone has in the whole country,” one engineer said. “We just recently had a rating, it was on 60 Minutes, they rated all of our infrastructure in America and it’s a D. A D-plus if you’re lucky. All of our infrastructure here in America, specifically in Alabama and rural areas, were put in in the 1950’s and 1960’s. So that is something that has to be replaced. There’s not enough money on the planet to replace everybody’s infrastructure, unfortunately.”
The board also disputed claims that they did not have a contract with Five Star. However, this raised further questions as to why the contract did not prevent Five Star from limiting Marbury Water, resulting in the water restrictions.
“The applicable language says that anything over 100,000 gallons a day will be delivered on an as-available basis, after the needs of Five Star Systems are met,” Will Webster, the board’s attorney, said.
The engineers also gave a “conservative” estimate of two years before the system could bring a second well online.
The meeting concluded without incident, despite expectations online and elsewhere that the meeting would get testy.
The matter of the petition was seemingly not addressed at the meeting. However, one speaker called the effort “a shame.”
“We do have some very good board members, and they do care about this water system,” she said. “Like I said, they’re people just like y’all are.”
The group behind the petition, Marbury Water Accountability Committee, acknowledged some errors in obtaining signatures and pledged to continue the effort.
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