BARSTOW - Jay Maurice put in a few hours of overtime during the weekend. Maurice, who along with his wife, Misti, owns and operates Newberry Springs Bottled Water, spent Saturday delivering water to Soap Mine Road area residents whose wells have high levels of nitrates. Maurice wasn't alone on Saturday. Soap Mine Road resident Christina Byrne, her husband Willy, and her two kids joined Maurice to help with the deliveries. Maurice was contracted by the city to deliver the water after the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board ordered the city to provide "an uninterrupted replacement water supply" to residents with elevated nitrate levels by Sunday. Anyone with a well that's nitrate levels are above 5 mg/L received water. The city initially struggled to find a company capable of delivering enough water by the deadline. It was actually Byrne who located the water for the city. Byrne and Maurice have known each other for several years, initially meeting when Maurice delivered water to Byrne's home. When Byrne heard the city was having difficulty finding a source of water she called Maurice and then recommended his company to City Manager Hector Rodriguez. Rodriguez then set up the arrangements with Maurice on Friday afternoon. "Christina called me on Friday and asked if I could come out and deliver the water," Maurice said. "Everything didn't happen until late Friday at like four or five. It all happened kind of at the last minute, but I'm happy to do this." Maurice delivered between two to four five-gallon bottles of water to each house affected by the nitrates, the amount depending on the number of people living at the house. He is currently scheduled to visit each house every two weeks. Maurice was able to visit around 23 homes and delivered more than 90 bottles of water on Saturday. He was forced to travel back to Newberry Springs to pick up a second load midway through the day because his truck could only hold around 70 water bottles. Maurice said his normal customers use around three bottles of water every two weeks. However, that water is used for drinking purposes alone and the Soap Mine Road area residents must also use bottled water for cooking. Lyn Monds, a Soap Mine Road area resident, expressed happiness over receiving the water but also concern over the effects of the nitrates. "I'm glad that the city is providing us with water because my well went from 5.8 mg/L to 7.3 mg/L and this is getting scary," Monds said. "Especially because I have my 93-year-old mother-in-law living here, and my husband is 74, and I'm 60. My husband is currently in the hospital with pneumonia. Health is important, and I wonder what effect the water has." Soap Mine Road area residents gathered at the home of Ray and Darla Smith for a potluck Saturday evening. The potluck was already scheduled to honor the work of the Soap Mine Road Area Citizens for Responsible Development, but was turned into a celebration of the city buying the bottled water after Saturday's deliveries. The city didn't send anyone to help with the deliveries, which bothered area residents, according to Byrne. Phone calls to the city were not returned. "It's disappointing that no one representing the city was here to see how this was done or who got water," Byrne said. "Jay and I spent our day passing out water so the city could meet the deadline, and they didn't show up."
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