![Eric Seib is the Operations Manager for the city of Jay. He and the council have been working on several projects for the city to improve the water quality. [RAMON RIOS/PRESS GAZETTE]](http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ghows-DA-8ed4bf63-8d84-3381-e053-0100007fbbab-365125e3.jpeg)
JAY — City leaders hope the discolored water issue that has plagued some residents for years will soon be resolved.
Jay officials have applied for a U.S. Department of Agriculture grand to replace the remaining 28,000 linear feet of aging cast iron water pipes that are causing the discolored water.
Mary Gavin, technical assistance provider for the Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project in Gainesville, and Jeffery Archer, area director rural development Florida/U.S. Virgin Islands, attended a special meeting of the Jay City Council last week to update the board on the grant application.
"The city is about as close as you can get to the funding award," Archer said.
The hold up is a piece of paper that is asking if archeological testing must be completed first. That does not appear to be a factor in this project. According to both Gavin and Archer, the USDA funding and project to replace the cast iron pipes should be approved within days.
The next process is for the city to announce the funding award to its residents through a special or regular meeting depending on when the award is approved and get the project started.
For years there have been pockets of discolored water that have made their way through the Jay water system and out of the tap into residents' glasses.
Residents describe the liquid as tea colored.
The discolored water is not harmful for residents, according to testing completed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP has said the sediment in the water is caused by the deteriorating water pipes that is adding iron and magnesium.
The current water main system in Jay is made of cast iron and was originally constructed in the 1940s. According to Eric Seib, the city operations manager, "the water main has reached its end of life."
Attention was brought to the subject when the discolored water started to appear. After an investigation found the source of the sediment, the city started looking for money to replace the aging pipes, including applying for grants through state and federal government programs.
City officials previously applied for the Community Development Block Grant for low to middle-income communities to replace some of the aging pipes and was approved for $625,000, $600,000 from the grant portion and $25,000 for Jay's local matching funds.
"So far that CDBG money has replaced 13,000 linear feet of the cast iron water main," Seib said. "The grant we are trying to get now is through the USDA Rural Economic Initiative Development Committee that can complete the replacement of the additional 28,000 linear feet of cast iron we have left.
"There are conditions with this grant, it is worth $1.5 million," Seib said. "The grant will also require the city to pay a match of 10 to 15 percent of the total cost once the project is finished."
For more information go to WWW.rd.usda.gov/.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Jay working to improve water quality