GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. --
The Possum Kingdom fire station had just moved to a new building when the old one caught fire. Someone driving by in the middle of the night saw the smoke and called it in. Luckily, the new station was right around the corner. The men and engines were there in enough time to, as Chief Ken Taylor put it, "have a chance to save it."
Instead, those firefighters stood and watched the building burn.
The entire area, in southern Greenville County, is without public water. Most homes and businesses, including the new fire station, use backyard wells. Crews brought a tanker with enough water to last a few minutes, but when it ran out, they had to drive to another county for a refill.
It was too late.
Since that fire two years ago, State Representative Eric Bedingfield said two homes have burned for the same reason.
"It is defeating the purpose for us even being there, really," Taylor said, "when you pull up and you see smoke and you think you got a fighting chance and you got no water."
The water problems got worse during the drought. Many of the wells and ponds the community used have run dry.
"After two or three years of no rainfall, the wells aren't coming back. One family right up this road has three houses on one well. They're trying to buy time," said Bedingfield.
The solution was supposed to come from a new pipeline that would run water from the Greenville Water System along Cooley Bridge Road and Holiday Dam road near Ware Place.
Residents there had already signed up to buy in for their share and Greenville County was willing to pay for much of the project if matching funds from the state came through.
Taylor applied for what's called a "competitive grant" from the state.
Because of budget cuts, the money disappeared right at the last minute -- just when people thought the project was a done deal.
"It's like somebody pulled the rug out from underneath us," Taylor said.
"We were on the agenda the day the money went away. You know, it's disheartening. We can't let our guard down. We can't quit trying," said Bedingfield.
The state cut the competitive grants during the most recent round of mid-year budget cuts. The state cut the budget across-the board and removed funding for the grants.
Even Bedingfield, who said he has long opposed the grant process, said he felt this project was too important to ignore.
In the meantime, Taylor said he'll have more problems. "Our guys, firefighters, are just standing outside and it's not their job to watch it burn," he said.
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