ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times

Karl Keith of Buchanan (left) carries water to his car as James Hodge of God's Pit Crew helps. God's Pit Crew donated 22 pallets of drinking water to Buchanan residents Friday. At top: Ernie and Sandy Hutchens listen during a Buchanan Town Council meeting Monday night discussing the town's water concerns.

JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Paul Evans addresses the Buchanan Town Council about the town's water concerns during Monday's meeting.

BUCHANAN -- Eleven days after a tense April 2 public meeting that drew more than 300 residents, the Buchanan Town Council met Monday night and, again, the dominant topic was water.

The tiny Botetourt County town has been under a boil-water advisory since it was discovered that its primary well is influenced by groundwater and is at risk of contamination.

Mayor Tom Middlecamp, meanwhile, hinted that a short-term solution is in the works but declined to go into detail.

"I should have more information in the next 30 days ... or sooner," he said. "We're working in conjunction with Botetourt County."

"Just hold tight for a while," Middlecamp added.

The crowd at Monday's council session was both smaller in size and cooler in temperament than at the previous gathering, as about 40 residents filed into the town hall's eight-bench meeting room.

The town's water system consists of four drilled wells -- only three of which are working -- two storage tanks and two pump stations. The water is treated with chlorine and does not flow through a filtration plant.

Middlecamp said a microscopic particulate analysis conducted on April 7 showed an absence of E. coli and coliform bacteria in the town's water.

He also said the Virginia Department of Health had approved two preliminary engineering reports, one to upgrade the well being influenced by groundwater and one for another large well the town hasn't been able to put online because of similar problems. He estimated they would be upgraded by June 2010, and the council passed two resolutions to obtain treatment and distribution systems with the Fincastle-based company Engineering Concepts.

Middlecamp said the estimated budget for the completed projects would be $1.45 million for the filtration systems they need, as well as an additional $850,000 for a distribution system, which brings the total cost of the upgrades to about $2.3 million.

Although he voiced concerns that the town might not receive the stimulus funds it had applied for because the projects aren't yet "shovel ready," he said the town's boil-water status put them high on the list for grants and other forms of support.

Only a handful of people spoke out at the meeting, but one of them was Jason Adkins, a former member of the Buchanan planning commission who now lives in North Carolina and still owns property in town.

"We cannot wait until June of '10," Adkins said. Although he praised the actions of the mayor and the council, he urged them to hire a town manager and seek a quick solution to the water problems. "We're about to literally flush it down the toilet."

Councilman Mike Burton cautioned that the solution to their problem is expensive, specialized equipment.

"If it could've been fixed quickly, it would've been," he said.

"We can't go to Wal-Mart or Lowe's and plug it in," he continued, adding that to rent the devices they need would cost about $700,000 over a year and a half.