By Allen R. Gray
Mt. Zion during the time of the Biblical King David was a fortress on a hill—a citadel of protection. Mt. Zion signified the calling of God for His people.
Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, located in the unincorporated mostly African American community of Sandbranch, has become a literal fortress of hope for the residents of this godforsaken hamlet.
It’s the Saturday before Memorial Day 2022, and the westward drive to Sandbranch from US 175 and Beltline is pleasant and serene. The journey takes one past every type of abode imaginable—from sprawling ranches to trailer parks, from historic dwellings to newly constructed brick homes. Then the right turn onto Burns Drive, reveals dwellings that are, in a way, quite unimaginable.
The parking lot of Mt. Zion Church is desolate and abandoned, save an old pickup truck and a late model grey sedan. Today, there will be no free bottles of fresh drinking water or produce handed out to Sandbranch’s needy residents. The North Texas Food Bank delivery truck that usually arrives around 7:30 each Saturday morning did not come. Still, a consistent parade of late model cars drives up hopeful and wanting, but they quickly turn away full of disappointment.
The commodity most needed is fresh, unpolluted water, the one thing Sandbranch hasn’t had for more than 30 years.
WORLD HEALTH CRISIS
Fresh drinking water is man’s most critical element. Studies show that humans can live 8 to 21 days without food—but without water, one’s life expectancy decreases to approximately 3 days. An estimated 771 million people do not have access to safe drinking—and 1.7 billion don’t have access to a toilet. A water crisis is a major health crisis with nearly 1 million people dying each year from water, sanitation and hygiene-related diseases. A child dies every two minutes from exposure to water-related diseases.
But those are all impoverished nations that are without a sustainable infrastructure…Right?
Sandbranch residents find themselves among the unfortunate few. It is one of the few places in America that finds itself without clean drinking water, sanitation or trash collection. A 21st Century community living in Third World conditions, located in the heart of the 10th most high-net-worth areas in the world, according to the global analysis firm Weath-X.
HISTORY OF SANDBRANCH
Older residents recall happier, gentler days in Sandbranch. The community was established over 140 years ago as a Freedman’s enclave that provided a relatively comfortable way of life. Accessing life’s essentials was as simple as going to the well outback and drawing up a cool clean drink. There were eggs in the henhouse and pigs in the pen; and a quick trek to the corner store made all sorts of confections available. At one point, there were over 500 residents living and thriving in Sandbranch, with their only source of water being the spring that was accessed by a family’s well. Still, with successive generations Sandbranch’s population dwindled down to as little as 100 inhabitants.
Then in the 1980s the well ran dry. The water began to discolor and became tainted. Then the water began emitting a rotting smell. People who dared drink the water fell ill.
Extensive testing revealed bacterial contamination had made its way into the spring water that feed the wells. This rendered the water too polluted and harmful to drink or to even bathe in. That diagnosis was made over 30 years ago…The water is still tainted and too harmful to drink or to bathe.
Sandbranch residents believe gravel mining near the hamlet to be the source of the bacteria. Although Dallas County, in which Sandbranch is located, submits that the bacteria may have been the result of hogs —which were a widespread staple in the area — created a flow of waste that ultimately poisoned the water table. No one can say conclusively what the source of the bacteria is, only that it exists and that it makes the water unfit for human consumption.
WHY THE POLLUTION HASN’T BEEN FIXED
A bitter irony of this situation is that Sandbranch is located in close proximity to a Dallas Water Treatment Center. Yet while other nearby unincorporated areas were having water pipes installed, Sandbranch went without.
Sadly, a time when Sandbranch will receive fresh water may be never come as the community is ladened with a myriad of unfortunate and unrelenting circumstances:
• Since the 1970s, Sandbranch has been declared a floodplain area placing it under federal rules that limits new development, which means no new tax dollars
• With a populace of less than 100 residents left to pay taxes, a matter of financial viability comes into play
• Dallas county is not obligated to provide water infrastructure for that area of town
• In the 1990s, the county looked at creating a new water utility for the area but not even one of the townsfolk wanted to run it
• The well water cannot be filtered and cleansed of its bacterial pollution
• Less than 100 people—with an average income of $750 — isn’t enough to defray the estimated $6 million cost of installing a water system.
AN INNOVATIVE SOURCE
Rev. Leo Woodberry is an environmental advocate with the African American Environmental Justice Action Network (AAEJAN). AAEJAN is on a crusade to unite people of color across America, and to support impoverished communities disproportionately impacted by environmental hazards.
Woodberry has worked in the areas of water, air, and renewable energy with a host of environmental solutions organizations like The Environmental Protection Agency National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, Green Faith, and the South Carolina Environmental Justice Network to name a few.
Woodberry’s solution leans toward a more scientific solution with the use of hydropanels, which can literally pull fresh water from thin air. Hydropanels are solar-powered and are used to draw air into the system, where a thermal unit heats air. Then, the hydrogen and oxygen in the air condenses and is pumped to a dispersal, where the newly formed water is ready for consumption.
Hydropanel technology for the production of fresh water are currently installed in at least 52 countries around the world and are represented on at least 450 separate projects.
Woodberry is currently using a hydropanel system at his church in Florence, South Carolina. “We’ve had it since March 5th,” Woodberry said, “and it’s producing 224 16oz bottles of water a week.”
Woodberry is certain that this is a solution in-part to Sandbranch’s “environmental problem.” The hydropanel system would indeed be a welcomed relief to Sandbranch residents, but that solution has its limitations.
The 224 16oz bottles of water Woodberry’s South Carolina system produces equates to roughly 28 gallons of water per week. A normal household of three people undergoing normal activities can easily use well in excess of 50 gallons of water per day. For an entire community of 100 people 28 gallons of water per week would merely be a drop in a bucket.
Another drawback to hydropanels as a solution is the thing that has plagued Sandbranch since its water problems began, the high cost of bringing water to an unincorporated area. Installing a two-panel array in each home would be an answer, but that would come at a cost of about $6,000 per unit.
A FALLEN LEADER
Despite its blighted conditions, Sandbranch found a glimmer of hope in the person of Pastor Eugene Baron Keahey, who became pastor of Mt. Zion in 2013. By 2017, Keahey had made folks at the national level aware of the devastating environmental conditions in Sandbranch. He had pulled together a group of likeminded water advocates who made connections with the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Agriculture. One report has Keahey boasting that a total 11 heads of governmental agencies would be making an official visit to Sandbranch to investigate for a possible solution.
Taking his mission as far as Washington D.C., Keahey’s plan was to use his bureaucratic connections to obtain grants to finally put pipes in Sandbranch and then buy fresh water from the city of Dallas. Pastor Keahey believed fresh water would flow into the homes of Sandbranch within a year or two. Then came a most regrettable night…
February 28, 2019, Cedar Hill, Texas.
At around 4:30 a.m., a Cedar Hill police officer arrived at a burning home on 705 Lovern Street. That officer was able to assist two individuals to escape from an upstairs window, even before firefighters arrived to extinguish the flames.
Left inside the home were a mother and daughter, Deanna Keahey and Camryn Keahey, both dead as a result of the fire. Darryn Keahey, 17-years-old, died of her fire related injuries over a month later. Also, inside the fire ravaged home was the body of Pastor Keahey.
Dallas County Medical Examiners determined that Pastor Keahey died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The cause of the fire was not immediately conclusive, but it was considered “suspicious.” There are reports from neighbors that they heard gunshots prior to seeing smoke and fire coming from the home.
News of the deaths left friends and neighbors puzzled and generated more questions than there were answers. Having known Pastor Keahey, and the work he was doing, left acquaintances doubtful as to the cause of the fire. Pastor Keahey’s untimely death left a congregation of already bewildered people to grieve and wonder how this tragedy could have happened.
The Sandbranch Development and Water Supply Corporation put out this statement after Keahey’s death: “We haven’t given up on Sandbranch, and neither should you. Pastor Keahey’s dream is still alive, and, with your support and cooperation, we’ll continue fighting to make it a reality. It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.”
The absence of Pastor Keahey left a great void in the lives in and around Sandbranch. The needs of Sandbranch are great but the laborers are few—but even wake of a death, life for others must go on, and the thirst of a people must be quenched.
Until a permanent solution can be found, decided upon and funded, Mt. Zion is the lifeforce and central location for the distribution of water, and food items. The charitable contributions are not just for the residents of Sandbranch—although Sandbranch ressidents are the priority of service—but to all needy individuals looking just to survive.
Is Sand Branch the same as Joppy?