By the end of next year, the residents of Leonard Park might actually have drinkable water. Plans to hook the long-suffering Mifflin Township neighborhood to Columbus water continue to march forward, buoyed recently by a $278,000 low-interest loan from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. That money will cover what the township is paying for the project's design, which should be complete in the next four months.

By the end of next year, the residents of Leonard Park might actually have drinkable water.

Plans to hook the long-suffering Mifflin Township neighborhood to Columbus water continue to march forward, buoyed recently by a $278,000 low-interest loan from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. That money will cover what the township is paying for the project�s design, which should be complete in the next four months.

Ultimately, the project is expected to install 14,700 feet of waterline and connect 120 homes to the city�s water distribution system.

�This is an important first step,� said Erin Strouse, an EPA spokeswoman.

It�s been a long time coming.

Leonard Park�s well-water supply all but dried up after the construction of I-270 and I-670, beginning in the 1970s. What remained in the ground was discolored and uneven, not even good enough for a bath. Residents kept fresh water in cisterns and made frequent trips to the township�s maintenance building to fill up car-size tanks from an outdoor spigot.

Shirley Sargent, 79, lived in Leonard Park for some 50 years and remembers decades of cleaning clothes at a laundromat and filling up water jugs at a nearby church.

�My husband made all kind of calls all the time� about the water problem, she said. �They�d say they�d do what they could.�

They couldn�t do much. Relief was held up first by politics. Columbus initially refused to extend waterlines to unincorporated areas such as Leonard Park unless they were annexed into the city.

That changed in 2010. After the county forced an end to an annexation dispute between Columbus and the developer of the Hollywood Casino by rescinding sewer service to the casino site, the city decided to grant some exceptions. Leonard Park was one of 23 neighborhoods that Columbus agreed to extend water to, and it�s the first to move forward with the project.

Officials had to find money to make it happen, though. In September, Mifflin Township�s trustees told Franklin County that they could foot the design costs. In May, the Franklin County commissioners hired DLZ Inc. to do the work.

The county expects to use loans and grants to cover the estimated $3.15 million in construction costs. Work on the project is expected to begin by spring, said Stephen Renner, director of Franklin County�s Department of Sanitary Engineering. He says it�s actually happening.

Sargent believes him, knowing that the obstacles have been cleared. But for her, it doesn�t matter anymore. After five decades of dealing with the water problem, she and her husband moved down the road to a condo.

�It�s got city water and everything,� she said.

lkurtzman@dispatch.com

@LoriKurtzman