Water Crisis Students learn to cope without water for a week, while the Searcy water supply is under a boil order. Suspi c ions arose the w eekend of November 4th when a few people noticed the odd color of the w a ter coming our of the faucet. some may have thought that the toil e t needed to be flushed, but otl1ers noticed nothing out of the ordinary. However , suspicions o f Harding students w ere proven to be well-founded as an announcem ent was made in chapel on Monday. The water supply in Searcy was contaminated. Due to the heavy rains on' Saturday, Nov . 5 , the Littl e Red River , the primary source of Searcy's water supply , backed up and caused the fine water filters to become c logged . As a result the salt and turbidity levels could not be filtered properly, so the water did no t meet safety standards. The c ity issued a boil o rder for all water that was to be ingested and for w ater for dish washing. On campus , bottled water , purchased at Wal-Mart and Sam's, was distributed to the dorm res idents daily and the National Guard brought in tanks of water for student use. The biggest initial problem for the university concerned Aramark, the campus food service. After going through the proper channels , Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tuc ker gave the approvci· Ken ,\/cMahan - Emi c k . Va. C n;s10/ l\1Ci\taho n - Spr ing fi e lcl . Mo Lincta J\lc,\lullen - Slire vep o n . La . 1\tyro n 1\IC\ l'hc rter - 1ron 1o n. Mo . i\ 'othun /\/eons - Eustis . Fla . Ami ,\/crritr - LaPo rt e. T exas Tino ;\liliOtllO - C lea rwa te r. Fla . Lanc/ro Gayle 1\lil/cr - Dalt o n . Ga Me/ocly i\til/cr - El Do rad o. Ark . Keir/1 /\Iii/sop - Dye r . A rk . Christi i\1il/spaugh - Green1 o wn . Ind . Sarah 1\t il ch e l/ - Hussc ll. Iowa Em ily l\ti1chusso n - Jackson . Tenn . Angie ;\IOnQ - Co lumbiana . Ohi o Mino r l\1o nge - San Jose. Costa Hic a Kim f\toorl:' - Tulsa . Okla. Jacob ,\ to ro11 - Bedfo rd . Texas J\1ichell e i\1o rgon - Lo ngY iew . Texas ,\lar1hew A . 1\torni11os10r - Be llmon 1. Mic l1 . Tami ,\/o rris - Arca c1i a. Ca l if. Chunclu J\lorse - Bowl ing Grenn . Ky. T o e/(/ 1\to u •ry - Mo n1gom e ry. r\la . Amy Murphy - s 1. Lo uis . Mo. Kristi ,\/yri ck - T y le r . T exas P e o µI e 84 J u 11 i o r s for Aramark to collect w a ter from Hot Springs. He also approved the order for the National Guard to deliver two tanks of water to the women's and men's dorms. Students living in apartments and houses fell under the boil order, whi ch required that water be boiled for at leas t five minutes before usage. Junio r Apryl Greer felt the humor o f the w ater situation when she said, "It's kind of convenient. I have these nice bottles of water that the school provided for us. " For those not living in dorms, the w ater c risis was not as tol erabl e . "It was kind of inconvenient because l couldn't do my dishes and I w as eating o ff o f Dixie plates with plastic forks ," g raduate student Lisa Stiles said. Junior Tony Slate focused on the future e ffect that tl1e water c ri s is might have on people. "I think the good thing from this is that we'll learn not to take water for gran ted," he said. Along with the c itizens of Searcy, students coped with the situation by lugg ing around fresh water bottles, boiling pots of w a ter and avoiding all the water fountains until the boil order was lifted on Nov. 11. - Stacey Haywood
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