Water discoloration causes concerns
HUNTINGDON, Tenn. — A West Tennessee town is experiencing issues with their water supply and some have taken to social media to express their concerns.
The Town of Huntingdon has been experiencing brown water for around a month now.
On April 19, many in the town turned on their taps to find discolored water coming out.
According to some residents, the water was very brown, while others say it was only slightly yellow.
The Huntingdon Police Department issued a statement via social media about the water on April 21.
In the statement, they said the discoloration was due to a leak in the downtown area and that it was fixed.
They also said the water was safe to drink and use.
“One of my employees called and they were like, ‘Hey. The water is fairly dirty. It’s brown and it looks like it has dirt in it,'” said Kirsten McPeake, the owner of Block City Pizza in Huntingdon.
We asked McPeake if the problems with the water affected her business.
She says that the first day they found brown water, they assumed it was related to a leak they had in their parking lot. However, after their leak was fixed and the discolored water continued, they realized it was a issue with the city water.
So they had to resort to bottled water to wash their hands. However, that wasn’t the only issue.
“We couldn’t make our dough because we use our water to make our dough. So we had to go to Hollow Rock and make our dough at their pizza place and bring it back here,” McPeake said.
Even though the issue was reported to be fixed in the statement on April 21, a month later, some residents say they’re still finding brown water coming from their faucets, toilets and showers.
“Tuesday, I had an employee call me and say, ‘Hey. The water’s running dirty again.’ And I said, ‘Okay. Well, run the water again. See if that’ll work.’ It started to run clear so we didn’t really worry about it again. Then on Wednesday, same thing. And then Saturday, same thing. It ran dirty then started to run clear. So we’ve been just kind of as it runs dirty, running all of our taps as long as it will go, cold and hot, and see if it runs clear,” McPeake said.
According to leaders at the Huntingdon water department, the original leak could not be repaired because the parts were not available and needed a specific part to be made.
The new part was installed Tuesday morning.
They say they are already flushing the system. So in the next few days, the water should clear up.
Find more news out of Carroll County here.
