Once clean water now runs red in Fayette County town, spurring a fight for the PSD's future

[TexasTowelie]

At one point, the public drinking water pulled from an underground aquifer in the western slice of Fayette County was so clean that board members at the Page-Kincaid Public Service District wanted to bottle and sell it.

Then, last July, something changed.

High traces of iron, manganese and aluminum started showing up on water quality tests. Residents started seeing their laundry dyed shades of red and pink due to the water. When it came out of faucets in kitchens or bathrooms, some reported a strange smell, or that it ran “milky” or “rusty,” according to complaints.

Connie Smith gave her 2-year-old grandson a bath last August, and when she lifted him out of the tub, she found his skin covered in a red, bumpy rash.

“It’s scary. My other grandchildren are staying here, too. We tell them to take quick, quick showers. We take quick showers, and we don’t drink [the water] at all,” Smith said. “We buy water for everything, we won’t touch it.”

Read more: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/once-clean-water-now-runs-red-in-fayette-county-town/article_dd69f3d5-11a1-544c-8d32-e9a2134cd15b.html