CINDY PARK, TEXAS
MAY 2017
Ruben Gonzalez moves things around so that his daughter, Roxane, can climb into the back of the family's station wagon alongside eight one-gallon jugs of water. The family purchases bottles of water because of problems with the local well that supplies water to the homes in their neighborhood of Cindy Park, Texas. The well has at times tested above acceptable EPA standards for arsenic and currently has a dull salty taste to it. A combination of grant programs, including CDBG money, will bring surface water from a nearby community. Ruben himself got off of unemployment and into a permanent job when contractors were installing distribution lines on his street to receive the new water. He persistently asked if he could be hired to do the work and eventually landed a job installing the lines in his own neighborhood.