Brunswick County group pushing county commissioners to prioritize clean water access

BOLIVIA, NC (WWAY) — The topic of clean water took over the beginning of Monday’s Brunswick County Commissioners meeting.

As more than two dozen people held up signs reading “Prioritize Clean Water for All in the 2027 Budget” and “Your Neighbors don’t have Clean Water”, residents addressed commissioners about the need for more clean water access in the county during the meeting’s public comment section.

Monday night’s demonstration was organized by the Brunswick County chapter of the NAACP and EarthRights International, a human rights organization.

Earthrights has been involved for more than 3 years now, but Carl Parker, president of the Brunswick County chapter of the NAACP, said this has been a growing concern for much longer than that.

“We’re now over 23 years of fighting this fight,” Parker said. “That all folks need clean water. They’re not on well water, there’s no reason for anybody that’s not on well water don’t fight for clean water. I’m not on well-water, I fight for clean water cause I fight for other folks.”

Audrey Schreiber with Earthrights says this is not the first time such a demonstration has been held at a county commissioner’s meeting, and other actions like petitions have been sent by both Earthrights and entire communities to the commissioners before.

“For them, how they’re experiencing it is that it’s become more polluted,” Schreiber said. “There’s sediment in it, it’s turning their hair orange, it smells bad, they can’t cook with it and ostensibly, they can’t use it.”

Last September, Reverend Ray Gilbert, a Brunswick County resident, spoke about his belief that this is not a Brunswick County issue either.

“Because it’s so much in the ground now, and it’s so much rust and sediments coming to now and I can’t help but to think it has to be a health issue,” Gilbert said. “So I think when we look at it from a global perspective, it’s a health crisis to have people still on well water.”

County Commissioner Frank Williams has experienced the same hardships as many of these residents, having grown up on well water.

He said he understands the frustration, but added that a part of the county’s water system will soon be added to.

“Brunswick County’s water system is still relatively new compared to many others,” Williams said. “So it’s still a relatively young system that we’re building out and it just takes time to build that out.You know, like again, like we saw tonight, a water line that was first talked about in 2006 that finally got grant funding and got approved tonight. I wish things move faster, but that’s just a function of how things work and the resources and the available talent out there to build the things that we need to build.”

The water line he’s referring to was first discussed as part of the county’s capital improvement plan, which usually looks 15 or even 20 years down the line at projects that may need to be done in the future.

Schreiber said additional demonstrations may be held at future commissioner’s meetings.