Those Kids Deserve Water Too: A History of the Patoka Lake Regional Water and Sewer District

Fifty years ago, as America sent men to the moon, thousands in southern Indiana relied on water supplies little changed from pioneer days—cisterns or shallow wells often poor in quality, high in sulfur, or otherwise contaminated. During droughts when tanks ran dry, and wells failed, water for drinking, cooking, and bathing was trucked from springs or nearby towns. For decades, local leaders struggled to quench their communities’ thirst. In 1975, that all changed with the creation of the Patoka Lake Regional Water and Sewer District which provides drinking water to thirty-three water utilities and thousands of residential and commercial customers scattered across eleven counties in southwestern Indiana—an area that uniquely lacked readily available water. A new generation has grown accustomed to a ready supply of clean water. In Those Kids Deserve Water Too, author David L. Dahl tells how the district changed life for thousands of Hoosiers.