Distribution of emergency drinking water to county residents whose wells have gone dry will begin on Wednesday.

Bill Brown, director of the Greeneville-Greene County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said Monday the Greeneville Premium Waters, Inc., plant has donated about 2,700 gallons of bottled drinking water for distribution.

Brown said the water will be distributed by volunteers with his office at the So-Pak-Co Warehouse No. 3 at 1000 West Irish Street from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. each Wednesday, beginning tomorrow, Wednesday, Oct. 29.

The first shipment of water arrived at the warehouse aboard a tractor-trailer about 4:30 p.m. Monday and was unloaded by Brown and volunteers from his office.

Brown thanked So-Pak-Co for allowing its warehouse to be used for storage and distribution of drinking water.

Brown said his office has received a number of calls from residents of the Upper Paint Creek Road, Houston Valley and Mohawk areas who said their drinking-water wells have gone dry.

"We've had several calls every day for the past week-and-a-half," Brown said.

He noted that he consulted with Greene County Mayor Alan Broyles and that they agreed free drinking water distribution should resume.

Brown said his office first began distributing free drinking water to county residents whose wells went dry last year.

"We started on Oct. 23, 2007, and continued until April 23, 2008," Brown said.

Distribution of free drinking water was suspended in April after spring rains restored most wells that had gone dry.

Called "Operation Potable Water" by Broyles and Brown, the program saw Emergency Management Agency volunteers devote 610 man-hours distributing 6,173 gallons of bottled drinking water to 727 Greene County residents.

But drought conditions that resumed in summer and early fall have again caused water wells to go dry.

He said he felt his office had little choice except to try to help affected residents.

"As long as Premium Waters keeps helping us (by supplying free bottled water), we will keep helping those people," Brown said. "I can't imagine what it would be like to be without water."

Brown also pointed out that due to current economic conditions, many of those whose wells have gone dry can't afford to purchase drinking water.