WATER DISTRICT USERS COPE WITH BAD WATER

JACKSON, Mo. -- Henry Wilkinson is tired of discolored, bad-smelling tap water that has forced him to buy bottled water for drinking and cooking.

He and other residents of Lakeview Acres and Meier Lake Estates subdivisions west of Jackson have coped with bad water that surfaced earlier this month in a new well serving Public Water Supply District No. 2 in Cape Girardeau County.

The district supplies water to more than 500 customers in a 27-square-mile area that extends from west of Burfordville to Oak Ridge and includes the Millersville area. But the area just west of Jackson near the Highways 72-34 intersection has been hardest hit.

Gerald Sorbello, president of the rural water district, estimates the bad water currently affects fewer than 100 households.

That's little comfort to Wilkinson and others. Wilkinson said he and his wife have become increasingly frustrated. Their area has been under boil-water orders most of the month, including the latest, which has been in effect for about a week.

Wilkinson said his water is clear one day and discolored the next. Early Tuesday afternoon the tap water looked orange. "It had a pretty bad odor to it," Wilkinson said later in the day as he watered his lawn to flush out the bad water.

In early August it was worse. "It was kind of brown then," he said. "We can't understand why they can't get the system flushed out."

Sorbello said the district is installing several more flush hydrants to flush out the sediment that has settled in some of the water lines.

The problem has been traced to the water district's newest well, which sits on a hill near Gravel Hill, Mo., and goes down 1,120 feet. The well began operating in late June, and the problem developed in early August.

"All of a sudden it started pumping muddy water," said Gene Peterman, water district treasurer. "It was so bad you couldn't wash clothes or dishes in it."

Water district officials shut down the pump on Aug. 6. They later concluded that vibrations from an earthquake in the Bootheel in late July deposited clay and sand in the well water.

State geologist David Hoffman of Rolla doubts an earthquake is to blame. Hoffman said small earthquakes are common in the Bootheel. There were several in late July and early August that registered 2.3 to 2.5 on the Richter scale.

"There are a lot of things that are much more likely," said Hoffman, explaining it isn't unusual to draw up sediment from a new well.

Solution at hand

Regardless of what caused the sediment to show up in the water, Sorbello said the district's engineer has recommended installing a device that would detect if the water is cloudy. If is cloudy, the device opens a valve, which flushes the turbid water onto the ground. When the water clears up, the valve automatically shuts and the water once again is pumped into the lines.

Sorbello said the DNR must approve plans for installing the equipment and bids must be taken. The entire project could cost $10,000 and take at least two months to complete, Sorbello said.

"I am not going to put the well back on line until I know I am never going to have this problem again," he said.

Currently, water is being pumped from the district's two wells near Millersville. Sorbello said most of the district's other customers aren't experiencing any problems.

Sorbello said he hopes that flushing the lines will clear up the problem in the Lakeview Acres and Meier Lake Estates area by this weekend.