“It’s just constantly watching the water — knowing how many seconds or minutes you can turn it on in the morning for breakfast and have enough left to last you for a bath at night,” said Adkins, a resident of Branchland.
“It’s constant math, constant thinking, but I guess we’re used to it now.” Adkins has lived in his hollow off Harless Fork Road for most of his life.
His father built the house Adkins lives in now, his sister is right next door, his brother lives up the road, and Adkins owns another house a bit further back in the hills.
In his decades in the area, Adkins has drilled three wells on his current property, and several at other houses.
His habit of counting developed years ago, after his first well began to run dry and he started to pick up on the signs.
His current well has performed the best out of the three, only drying up temporarily a handful of times in the six or so years he’s had it.
Well water, when treated correctly and maintained, can produce perfectly drinkable water, but Allen Adkins does not trust his wells.
They were told the district ran out of money before the project reached their neighborhood.
A staff memo issued by the PSC after complaints filed by the Adkinses indicates that’s true — cost estimates from the project engineer showed there wasn’t enough money.
+2 So, without public water, Allen Adkins continues to count.