Referendum vote set for Ellendale’s water system

ELLENDALE, Del – “We won’t quit until we get good water,” said Ellendale resident and pastor of the town’s Philadelphia Pentecostal Holiness Church, Bishop Major Foster.

Community leaders in Ellendale are working around the clock to encourage residents to get out and vote in the town’s upcoming referendum. Which could ultimately decide if families will continue to have dirty water coming out of their faucets for years to come.

“They’ve been trying to get clean drinking water and access to clean drinking water there for many years,” said Technical Assistance Provider Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project (SERCAP) Consuelo McGowan.

The referendum set to take place on September 15th will give residents in the area a chance to hook up to a public water system giving them access to cleaner water while Replacing many of their private wells in and around the town that have tested positive for high levels of bacteria, nitrate, and more.

“It has a high iron content, the smell, it smells like iron, it looks bad, the water looks bad. A lot of them don’t have a lot of money and they don’t even know where their wells are or anything about how to fix it or how they can get help to fix it,” said McGowan.

Foster says residents water is so bad they come to his church, often standing in line for hours, waiting to fill up their water jugs and bottles just to get clean water.

“We’ve been fighting trying to get the water in here because the people that are in this area can’t use the water. They can’t wash with it, they can’t drink with it, they can’t do anything with it,” said Foster.

Officials say this will be the third time residents will be voting to bring a public water system to the town. They say cost was a huge factor turning most people off about the idea.

“Actually they’ll be saving money. They’ll pay their water bill but they won’t have to go buy bottles of water, or take their clothes to a laundromat,” said McGowan.

But residents say they’re certain they’ll get the numbers they need to pass the referendum this time, which will ultimately change everyone’s life for the better.

“Once it’s in, they’ll see the benefits of it. For the future. For them. For their health. For the community overall,” said minister Dennis Strickland.

If you’re not able to vote in person on September 15th you can vote with an absentee ballot from now until noon on Friday the 14th.