The recent multi-phase rural broadband project has one local water association official worried about what possible damage could be done to its rural water lines.
Pat Peeples, with Central Yazoo Water Association, appeared before the Yazoo County Board of Supervisors meeting to share his concerns over the rural broadband project that kicked off in Satartia this week. Aristotle Unified Communications joined in a strategic partnership with the design and construction firm, EPC, to deploy high-speed fiber internet in underserved rural communities. The rural village of Satartia was its first stop in the recent partnership.
“With this project going on in the southern part of the county with the fiber installation, it very well could be a problem for Central Yazoo Water,” Peeples said. “They are calling in so many locations, we can’t locate them all. If we don’t locate them, they are free to go to do whatever they need to do and tear our stuff up.”
Peeples said 17 water line locations were requested last week alone. And with only five employees at the local water association, he said many requests cannot be met.
“One of the things I think is going to happen is when they are going to be working in multiple areas,” he said. “Therefore, we don’t have that many people working for us to be taking care of all this. We could have some extended outages. Y’all are going to hear about that, just as we are.”
Peeples said the water association has attempted to hire outside contractors to help with the project in locating services lines, but he said none can be found.
“We can’t afford to hire enough people to take care of all of this,” Peeples said. “I know we need the fiber. But in the future, I would hope that we could come up with a better solution that we could do the fiber but not disrupt the service.”
Peeples said he has met with the involved parties. But with a federally imposed deadline, the work must continue.
“They have a deadline to meet,” he said. “They got so much they got to get done by a certain amount of time. And they are going to try to do their best to work with us, but they still have a deadline.”
Peeples said he understands the county leaders can provide the companies access to the rights-of-way. But he suggested implementing restrictive time frames.
“Maybe limit how fast they can go,” Peeples said. “It is going to devastate us. We are already looking to hire contractors to come and help us fix the leaks, which is going to cost us and our members money. I am afraid we are going to have some extended outages. I am afraid we are going to have so many leaks we can’t fix them.”
Peeples added that it is almost impossible to locate all the services lines. Supervisor Joseph Thomas suggested an updated mapping system that could assist with line location.
“We have maps that show where the lines are,” Peeples replied. “But a lot of times, they are not where they say they are at.”
Peeples said the maps were more “generic.”
“Well, you need to get modern,” Thomas added.
Peeples said the association is starting to place tracer wires in new lines.
“I just wanted y’all to be aware and know what is coming,” Peeples said. “Y’all are going to hear it just like we are. All we can is all we can do. Hopefully, it won’t be as bad as I think. But I am afraid it is.”
