PWSD 3 Suspends Bulk Water Service

Bulk water service has been suspended until further notice at Howell County Public Water Supply District No. 3. According to director John Sullivan, a broken safety coupling on the hydrant will require a complete replacement of the entire apparatus. The repair is not urgent, Sullivan said. Bulk water sales do not nearly match the thousands of dollars the replacement will cost. 
“We’re going to do it, but we have no idea when,” Sullivan said. 
PWSD 3 took over dispensing bulk water to the public years ago after equipment furnished by the City of Willow Springs “wore out.”
There were several people who still needed bulk water services, so PWSD 3 took it over as a service to the public. 
“We’ve got people who are really needing water. They come in with five gallon containers,” Sullivan said. 
Despite the somewhat outdated need for bulk water, Sullivan knows that families in the area do, in fact, rely on bulk water services to provide water for their homes. 
“If you desperately needed a buggy whip, you’re not going to find a buggy whip store here,” he observed, “There are enough people who need buggy whips around here that something needs to be done. This is not a matter of finances...This is a public service that needs to be done.”
According to Pat Johnson, general manager at Homestead Crossing, there are between 20 and 50 families around northern Howell County who are homesteading off the grid or may otherwise need bulk water services at their homes.
Johnson said there is a coin-operated bulk water dispensing operation in the city of Mountain View, which is now the only place where the public may obtain bulk water in the area at the present time.