Land slippage dangerously close to Turkey Hill home
BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
“It looks like if you touched it, it would blow out.” –Okey Mills
INEZ, Ky. — Looming above Okey Mills’ home on top of Turkey Hill is what appears as a relic of a bygone (not-completely-gone) era – a rusty water storage tank that he believes is the cause of chronic slippage of his land. Mills is also convinced that issues with the tank caused a mudslide 17 years ago that destroyed his parents’ home.
The slippage is dangerously close to Mills’ house in the front and back.
“I’ve spent a lot of money fixing the slip, but it’s still slipping,” the 51-year-old Mills said. “It’s really never stopped since it started.”
Martin County Water District records show the tank holds 50,000 gallons of treated water from the water treatment plant.
Rust has consumed the bottom of the tank and is spreading along the seams and dimpling the surface.
Piping is rusty, corroded and flaking.
Mills says the tank’s warranty expired long ago and should already have been cut up for scrap metal.
“It looks like if you touched it, it would blow out,” said Mills of the rusty lines. “You could peel layers off those.”
Mills notes he has many times observed water at the tank’s base.
“I can’t say that the tank is leaking, or can’t prove it, but I’d almost guarantee you that the inlet line is,” he said.
The land surrounding the tank belongs to Mills. He first suspected the tank of leaking and overflowing water onto his property following the mudslide that destroyed the home of his parents, Sharlene Mills and the late Okey Mills Sr.
“The water company came out and tested for chlorine after it happened,” said Mills. “But you know how that goes.”
Before the disaster that forced his parents to relocate, water overflowing from the tank traveled directly toward their home.
“Dad made them move it, and it’s supposed to go this way,” Mills said, pointing toward the left of the tank where a black flexible plastic pipe travels down the hill to a ditch next to state road 908. “You can see at the blacktop where it comes off.”
The pipe is not covered or connected to anything on either end.
“They fixed it for a second and that’s it,” remarked Mills.
“They still have an overflow line. It’s just cut off with a screen over the end of the line instead of hooked up the way it’s supposed to be. Any overflow just runs down the hill.”
The overflow pipe is metal in the section that initially leaves the tank. It disappears into the ground and reappears as a flexible pipe a few feet from the tank, where a hose clamp holds a screen over the end of it.
Mills points to an area of soil breakage on the hill in front of the tank. “It starts right here.” He nods toward his home. “I’ve had the worst slip right there ever was. I’ve had it fixed three times.”
According to Mills, the soil stays wet in an area on the hill.
“There’s a straight path right here that stays wet,” explained Mills. “In the dead heat of the summer, it can be as dry as powder, but it stays wet in a straight line across here.”
Mills says workers in the water district office know about the issues with the overflow line.
“You don’t know how many times I’ve told them, ‘That tank is pouring the water,’ because right beside my mailbox, it just pours straight off the hill. As you come down the blacktop, you can see where the bank is washed out,” he said.
“It’s sad the way the water department is. Neglect is a lot of the problem.”
Mills and his wife, Misty, reside in the home with two daughters.
“We lived there when my baby girl was born, and she’s 25,” said Mills.
“Mom and Dad had lived there a while before.”
Chronic land sliding and breakage so close to their house drive worry and fear for a family familiar with the grief of Mills’ parents losing their home.
“I never dreamed of getting washed off on top of a mountain,” confessed Mills. “My mom stayed a nervous wreck about it.”
Rehabilitation of the Turkey tank is on the Martin County Water District’s wishlist.
MCWD chairman Jimmy Don Kerr said in a phone interview Sunday that the district is “fully aware” of the issues with the tank but did not know there was a problem with water coming down the hill on Mills’ property.
“It’s a high priority and Mr. Mills’ issue makes it a top priority,” Kerr said.
“Rust is the biggest problem with that tank; it is starting to rust out really bad. We’re going to end up having a big problem if we lose the tank, so that’s one of the things that we’re trying to work on immediately to replace that tank. That will probably help Mr. Mills, too, because they would reroute everything.”
Kerr says the water district may have money left over from the treatment plant and raw water intake project that is nearing completion.
“We may have enough to buy a new tank up there,” said Kerr. “If we can, that’s what we’re going to do. We need to help the district and Mr. Mills.”