A Eureka-area family no longer has to worry about a basic necessity.
The Illert family now has a clean water source at their home, northeast of the city off Lewis Road, thanks to a former NFL star, a national nonprofit organization and a water solutions and technology company.
Sarah and Justin Illert’s family, which includes 5-year-old daughter, Lilah, and 2-year-old son, August, received a water well system last month.
The system was donated by two-time Super Bowl champion Chris Long’s Hometown H2O organization, Water Well Trust and Xylem. The installation started on May 12 and was completed shortly after that.
With the new system in place, Sarah said she was able to bathe her son with water from the tap for the first time since moving into the home from High Ridge in July 2020. “You can see it was actually blue; it wasn’t brown,” Sarah said of the water in August’s bath.
The Illerts’ well is the fourth project completed by Hometown H2O, Xylem and Water Well Trust.
The groups teamed up in early 2020 when Long, who played for the St. Louis Rams and won Super Bowls with the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles, and his foundation created the Waterboys initiative to address domestic water scarcity issues.
More than 2 million Americans are without access to clean water, according to a Xylem press release.
“One thing no one should have to worry about is having access to clean, safe water,” Long said. “Yet, millions of Americans like the Illert family lack daily access to clean water. The need for safe water in the U.S. is real – especially in rural areas where 1 percent of people report having issues with safe drinking water.”
Water woes
Justin Illert, who is a Navy veteran, said the family knew their new home’s water supply came from a cistern, an underground tank that can be filled by rainwater or delivery of water by truck to supply water to a home.
He said what the family didn’t know was how poor the water quality was from the cistern.
“As soon as we came in and turned on the faucet, we knew something was wrong,” said Justin, 30.
Sarah, 28, said the water that came out of the tap was brown and smelled bad.
“We were under the impression that the water was (clean) and when we actually moved in, we realized that it wasn’t drinkable water,” she said.
Sarah said they purchased bottled water and had a water truck fill the cistern for the first year they lived at the home. Justin said it cost $200 to have the cistern filled by a truck, if no rainwater had been captured.
Sarah said bottled water was used for everything from drinking, brushing teeth, washing hands and cleaning dishes.
“Laundry was not even an option here,” Sarah said, adding she took laundry to other family members’ homes.
Problem solving
Sarah said she applied for grants and investigated securing a loan to fix the water issues. They received estimates from $7,000 and $10,000 to solve the problem.
“It’s a huge relief for us (to not have a loan),” Sarah said. “We’ve got windows that need to be replaced and insulation that needs to be taken care of in the house, but water was kind of the top priority. Because the well is being donated, that allows us to get those repairs done and put us in a better financial position in the future.”
Sarah said she applied to receive the free well system through the Water Well Trust website in January. She said the family was notified in February that they were selected.
And three months later it was like a holiday when workers from Schroepfer Well Drilling Inc. in Leslie started the process of drilling the well and getting the system up and running.
“It was like waking up on Christmas morning,” Sarah said.
She said being able to use water supplied from the new system to bathe her youngest child has been a blessing.
“There was a lot of restraint that had to happen to keep them from (drinking the water),” Sarah said. “I could explain to him that it was dirty, but he just didn’t grasp it.”
A clean, safe bath is not the only benefit the family has seen since the system was completed.
Sarah said she was going to buy a dishwasher, washing machine and dryer. Justin said he is enjoying taking clean showers, and Lilah said she can drink water that comes from the home’s sinks.
Sarah said she has also been able to enjoy a bath, and she looks forward to setting up a sprinkler for the kids to run through this summer.
“It’s just little things you don’t think about,” she said. “Honestly, it’s life-changing. You don’t think about how frequently you use water until you don’t have a clean steady supply of it.”