RMPBS News
91-year-old Boone resident still without clean water as Trump veto clouds Arkansas Valley Conduit’s future
2/20/2026 | 2m 36sVideo has Closed Captions
The Arkansas Valley Conduit, long plagued by delays, now faces uncertainty again over completion.
The Arkansas Valley Conduit, a 130-mile pipeline authorized by Congress in 1962 to bring clean water to communities, faced decades of delays due to high costs. In 2009, Congress amended the plan to share costs — 65% federal, 35% local — and construction began in 2023. In 2026, President Trump vetoed the bipartisan “Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act,” which Congress didn’t override.
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RMPBS News is a local public television program presented by RMPBS
RMPBS News
91-year-old Boone resident still without clean water as Trump veto clouds Arkansas Valley Conduit’s future
2/20/2026 | 2m 36sVideo has Closed Captions
The Arkansas Valley Conduit, a 130-mile pipeline authorized by Congress in 1962 to bring clean water to communities, faced decades of delays due to high costs. In 2009, Congress amended the plan to share costs — 65% federal, 35% local — and construction began in 2023. In 2026, President Trump vetoed the bipartisan “Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act,” which Congress didn’t override.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipThis is what I do every Friday when I come to my daddy's house here in Boone.
I do my weekly shopping at Walmart and we have to get cases of water for his drinking and also for his cooking.
Come on girls.
Between the three siblings, each of us come and we take care of him during the week.
We bring water to him because he wasn't able to drink the water.
I was born in 1962 here in Boone.
And I grew up here.
And then I got married, left... I live in Pueblo.
But my daddy still lives here in Boone.
I know the residents here in Boone were getting free bottled water for a while and then that totally stopped on them.
So they were having to purchase their own water.
I won't take a shower here with the water.
I was in the beginning, but I noticed a difference in my hair and my skin would be itchy.
And I have eczema as it is.
when I was little, I thought it tasted okay.
I won't taste it now.
It's been years and years since I've ever drank from the tap water.
Well over 30 or 40 years.
As we got older, I remember, when my son was little, my mom wouldn't allow the kids to drink water.
It's a pain because you forget.
So I'll start to go to the sink and then I have to stop and think, “Oh, God, I can't use that water.
I got to get the bottled water.” This here is the check for the town of Boone—$119 for one month that he has to pay for water that he don't even get to drink.
The Arkansas Valley Conduit project is very important for the communities out here.
We need the water.
The town was depending on that.
They lived here for years.
They've been waiting on this for years.
They've been looking forward to it.
I was about 20 when I moved to Boone.
We been waiting for this water for over 30 years.
We just need it.
My dad needs it.
He's 91 years old and he's been here for a long time.
And these new families that are out here; they need it.
There's a lot of little kids out here; they need it.
There's a school out here that needs it.
It's really sad that Trump is doing this to these people because we do need this project done.
It was started.
It needs to be finished.
It's hurting a lot of families.

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