Residents in Martin County, Kentucky, refuse to drink their tap water due to safety concerns of the water brought by years of neglect and mismanagement.
Martin County resident Florene Reed, 63, would always make sure that her teenage grandson would always have enough bottled water even if she has to make do with tap water, which causes a burning sensation in her stomach.
According to Reed, she switched to drinking bottled water from drinking crystalline water from wells and local springs throughout the Appalachian mountains due to health concerns linked to coal mining and the mismanagement of utility.
Deep Mistrust on the Tap Water
According to a recent study by the University of Kentucky, Reed is not the only one who experiences distrust on their tap water. Around 96% of residents in Martin County rely mainly on bottled water for drinking, while only 56% of them use tap water for cooking.
Reports said that tap water in the area smells strongly of chlorine, like the swimming pool, and has a bad taste, discoloration, sediment, and causes irritation and burning sensation when used for bathing.
Reed said that residents there do not drink tap water unless they had to because they cannot trust its safety and the water department.
She also said that she pays two bills for water in a month, around $60 to $70 a month for public utility, and another $30 or so to the store to buy bottled water. She also noted that her 18-year-old grandson has never tasted tap water in his entire life. She does not allow him to because of the health hazards it might cause them.
The deep mistrust the residents have for their tap water is the legacy left by years of neglect and mismanagement.
Undrinkable Water Thanks To the Coal Mines
Martin County was once the heart of the American booming coal industry. But today, only a handful of mines, property empires of former coal barons, and a train that now mostly transport goods are left to the county.
Their problems in their drinking water started to get attention when in October 2000, a local coal company spilled 300m gallons or about 1.6 billion liters of coal slurry containing arsenic and mercury, which flowed to nearby waterways.
It was considered to be the worst environmental catastrophe at that time in the south-eastern United States. However, the government at that time was accused of whitewashing the federal investigation by environmental advocates and experts.
Regulators recommended fixing the broken infrastructure and management system as they have found that it was in disarray due to the disaster. However, two decades have passed, the utility still has failed to invest in vital water systems while doubling its service in an ad hoc manner to households whose private wells were also contaminated.
It resulted in dysfunctional pipes and pumps that cause frequent line breaks and outages, forcing schools to be suspended and residents to boil their water. Residents frequently report earthy brown water, and the broken line breaks cause bacteria to enter the water system.
The Center for Appalachian Research in Environmental Science of the University of Kentucky has formed and designed a citizen science study which involved resident in obtaining samples of tao water from 97 households throughout 2019. They aim to identify the contaminants in their water and force greater transparency and accountability.
They found alarming results in which almost 50% of the water samples had at least one contaminant that violated the EPA standard. But the main health concern is the unsafe levels of disinfection byproducts (DBP), particularly the total trihaloacetic acids and total trihalomethanes, which are associated with causes of cancer and congenital disabilities. They also found coliform in 13% of the samples collected.
Water warriors have constantly shared photos of leaked pipelines and contaminated water and calls out to authorities to also give them safe and clean water to drink by taking action of the problem and holding the people accountable to the water contamination in their area.
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