Henry Sewage to be Cleaned Up
Since 2006, Ed Bush has been working to fix the city of Henry’s troubled water system. “Gray water stench is what it smells like.” Bush, the public works director for Henry, said since it was built in 2002, the system has not worked properly, creating a lake of waste, instead of seeping through the ground as planned. “Just hang in there its going to get better, that’s all I can say, in a year, I feel like this will be past history,” said Mayor Joe Qualls of Henry. Off and on for 20 years, Mayor Qualls has served Henry. He said the $170,000 price tag to fix the problem. The price tag was too costly for a town of only 500 people. “They’re going to start the process of testing soil to see if it will allow this to be plumb over there and distributed in another area, then we’ll go from there,” said Mayor Qualls. After years of being denied, Henry has finally been approved for a USDA grant of $400,000 and one from Delta Regional, that will completely cover the costs of a new sewer system, which means the tiny town will not have to pay a dime. “Real pleased that we didn’t have to raise the water sewer bills just b/c of this,” explained Mayor Qualls. He said getting this sewer fixed is not his only concern, he said his next step is court. He is going to sue the engineer who planned their failing system.”If the engineer had of overseen the project we probably wouldn’t have been in this because it was some shortcuts taken by construction people, that’s my opinion.”
