Water safety concerns for some in Alexandria
ALEXANDRIA, Ind. (WISH) — A woman is raising concerns about the safety of the the drinking water in Alexandria despite city officials saying otherwise.
Concerns about the water started for Lisa Summers when she saw a social media post from someone in her community. “The young lady had posted that her child had gotten E. coli from the water and I was like, ‘Huh, that’s kind of weird. You know, our water is kind of brown, so I’ll just do a test, a home test,’” Summers said.
She gathered a sample and sent it to the state-certified Hoosier Microbiological Laboratory.
“I followed the test completely to a tee. I’m not taking the water from my toilet. You know, I’m not doing that,” Summers said.
The results she gave I-Team 8 showed her water was unsatisfactory, testing positive for E. coli and other bacteria’s called Coliform.
Concerned she wasn’t the only one, Summers encouraged people in the community to have their water tested too. She showed I-Team 8 results from four different houses that also came back as unsatisfactory with different levels of bacteria in the water.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, any level above zero is unsatisfactory for the bacteria that was tested for.
On their website, The City of Alexandria says they investigated and did additional testing of the water at 16 different locations around the city. All of those tests came back negative for E. coli and coliform.
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) also got involved.
“To date, the investigation has been conducted, and the conclusion is that the wider distribution system is not, or was not, at risk,” IDEM Communications Director Allen Carter said.
Summers is still convinced there is a problem with the water.
“I feel like they want to not necessarily hide it, but it’s just like they don’t want to fix the problem. Like it’s too big of a problem to be fixed. That’s how I feel,” she said.
With her trust in the drinking water gone, “I have to buy water. That get’s expensive,” Summers said.
Mayor Todd Naselroad statement
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