People first settled in Fairhope in 1894, and the colony became a town in 1908, but it was another eight years before the town opened its own water system. Early residents’ needs were served by the old town pump that stood right in the middle of the street at the corner of Section and Fairhope.

   In 1916, a “modern” steel water tower went up behind the old police station (now the City Welcome Center). Water gushed forth, and Fairhope was big time!

   The City’s Water Department has come a long way from those days. Today it is the largest supplier of water in Baldwin County, with 14,500 hookups, serving an estimated 43,500 people. According to Water & Sewer Superintendent Dan McCrory, most of the growth has taken place in the last nine years.

   "I believe we had only four or five wells up until 1992,” McCrory said. “We have doubled that and have completed the site for well no. 9.” The city also maintains four water towers totaling 3.6 million gallons of storage with plans to complete a new 3 million gallon capacity tower in November, 2004. When the new water tower is complete, the City's water capacity will be 6.6 million gallons.

   McCrory and Assistant Superintendent Thomas Billadeau head up a 22-member department that consists of three separate areas: water, sewer, & construction.

Construction
   With an average of nearly three new service connections a day, the construction crew, consisting of John Reed, Curtis Cooper, William Stanczak, Charles Durgin and utility locator Gary Hart, stays busy.

   “This work is very labor intensive,” McCrory said, noting that in addition to new services, the construction crew is also responsible for extending the lines as Fairhope grows and for repairing leaks. “If a water main breaks at 2 a.m., these are the guys who will be out there fixing it,” he said.

Sewer
   The City's sewer services are broken down into collection and treatment. Grady Lancaster, John Keller, and Chad Kelly are responsible for all of the collection system, including maintenance at the City's 60 lift stations. They also make sure that all the City's sewer lines run cleanly so that what is flushed ends up where it’s supposed to be at the treatment plant.

   Plant Manager Ed Nolte, along with operators Tim Manuel, James Davis, Guy Bauer, Marcus Commelander and Paul Pinson, and operator-trainee Brad Deyton are responsible for the operation and maintenance of the City's newly renovated $5.5 million plant on north Section Street.

   The operators keep extensive records, file daily reports, and conduct tests three times a week on the treated effluent before it is discharged into Mobile Bay. Operators are on site between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m., but the computerized system alerts them by pager if anything goes wrong at night.

Water
    Maintaining the City's all-important water wells are Chief Operator Kevin Hempfleng, Assistant Operators Danny Colelli, Curtis Cooper and Jeremy Davis.

   These three safeguard the City's drinking supply by making sure all purification procedures are properly followed. They test the water daily and compile daily and weekly reports.

   “Water is something we all take for granted,” McCrory said. “We just expect it to be there when we turn on a tap, but there is a lot to it. So the next time you get a drink of water, or you flush a toilet, remember that these guys are working hard for you. Maybe we could do without electricity for a few days, but we cannot do without water.”

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Annual Water Quality Report pdf