In the year since SouthWest Water Company acquired the local French Settlement Water Company, Delatte said complaints of poor water quality have escalated. Photos have surfaced on Facebook of bathtubs and swimming pools filled with the brownish water, calling out the French Settlement company.
"The water quality is terrible," Delatte said during the meeting, addressing a SouthWest representative. "They’re paying the water bill and they can’t use the product they’re paying for."
The water company says the discoloration is coming from elevated levels of iron and manganese, which can coat pipes, and says the water is harmless. Recent water grades for 2022 released by the state Department of Health show the five French Settlement Water Company entries range from an "A" to a "B" grade — though most have deductions for customer complaints and the presence of iron and manganese "greater than the secondary maximum contaminant levels."
One of the many examples that obtain these days of conditions we shouldn't expect people to "just get used to," and yet...
The first time she noticed the problem, she and her husband were taking showers after getting off their boat. Her husband kept washing and washing his feet, which were muddy from their trip, but they never seemed to get clean. After scrubbing them repeatedly, he realized his feet weren't dirty — the water pouring from the shower head was brown.
Shoemaker was trying to dry her wet hair when she found it was practically matted together from the water.
Even when the water company flushed the lines, the smell of the strong chlorine water worried Shoemaker — "just like getting out of a public pool," she said.
Shoemaker began to knock on her neighbors' doors seeking more information and learned that the questionable water in the area had been a constant for years. As she has spoken about the problem publicly on social media, Shoemaker said she has received pushback from people retorting she should just dig her own well if the water is so terrible.
We're very quickly giving up on expecting better for ourselves and for one another.
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