Residents in Neudorf are concerned about the safety of their drinking water, after they noticed it coming out of the taps discoloured.
Shelley Coburn, a resident of the village, said the water has been discoloured ever since the town installed a new osmosis system more than a year ago. She has been forced to use a water cooler because she says the tap water has become undrinkable.
“It’s getting to the point where I’m loading up the washing machine and it’s getting more yellow and the toilets are getting more yellow, I wouldn’t even give this water to my cats,” said Coburn.
Patrick Boyle from the Water Security Agency said the newly installed system mixed with the village’s older cast iron pipes, is the likely cause of the discolouration.
“When you have a newer system moving through a legacy system what’s happening is some of the iron from the cast iron pipes causes discolouration,” said Boyle.
Shelley’s husband Ed, says finding alternatives to the tap water has become costly for their household.
“I myself won’t drink it and a lot of people feel the same way,” said Ed. “Between the cost of water going up, filters and bottles, the cost is going up, and it’s not getting better.”
A group of residents in the village brought the issue forward to the local council, and Mayor Murray Hanowski has a temporary fix for the water.
“Well we have to flush all our lines and we'll be doing that tentatively Monday and that will be a solution now until we get new hydrants,” said Hanowski.
New hydrants will help flush out the water in the area, but Boyle said a permanent solution to fix the discoulered water is to replace the old cast iron pipes with new lines.
