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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Rural Communities Struggle to Maintain Water, Sewer Services

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Thursday, May 10, 2012   

PINEY CREEK, N.C. - Thousands of communities across North Carolina must rely on septic systems - systems many of them are struggling to maintain or replace in the current economic climate.

Allegheny County is one example. The septic system that services one of its elementary schools was shut down by the Health Department earlier this year. County Manager Don Adams explains the potential impact on the community.

"If we didn't repair it, we would have to shut our school down. Allegheny County is like a lot of other local governments; we're just strapped for funds at this point."

The school is transporting waste off-site while the new system is completed. The Rural Economic Development Center in Raleigh awarded a $384,000 grant to Allegheny County to replace the system, and the project is expected to be completed by this fall.

Unlike other states, North Carolina does not offer an annual appropriation to communities for water and sewer maintenance. The Rural Economic Development Center distributes what funds it receives to communities in need, according to its vice president for rural development, Patrick Woodie.

"Our funding is designed to really lower the cost of construction projects so that the customers on par pay a fair price for water and sewer."

That "fair price" is dictated by state law and set at 2 percent of a community's median income. The state has not added new funds to the program since 2009.

More than one-fourth of Allegheny County's population of more than 11,000 lives in poverty.

Reporting for this story by North Carolina News Connection in association with Media in the Public Interest. Media in the Public Interest is funded in part by Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.


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