ST. MARY, MO (KTVI-FOX2now.com) -
Muddy water, a rotting water system and the town refuses to make any repairs. Fox Files reporter Chris Hayes investigates a water supply that regulators say is so bad, the town must abandon it. You have to see it to believe it. Brown water, with sediment that sinks and and looks like mud.
Jody Odem showed us a sample he collected. He lives in St. Mary, MO, a small town on the river just South of Ste. Genevieve.
Maxine Giesler sees it a lot. She called the water, "Chocolate colored, muddy."
On the morning of our visit, she had to run her tap for awhile until it came out clear for her dog to drink. She said she told her dog, "Queenie? Am I going to have to start buying bottled water for you too?"
Bottled water is the only kind of water many people in this town will drink.
Odem added, "You have to. I mean would you drink this?"
Mayor Carl Wyatt drinks it. He said, "Since 1974, I drink the water [Reporter] You're not afraid to drink the water? [Mayor] I'm not afraid to drink the water. I've seen the tests. Now when we do have a bad run, whenever something happens to one of the lines or something, no. [Reporter] Sometimes it comes out brown. [Mayor] Yes, sometimes it comes out brown, but that's usually when there's been a flush or a there's been a fire, or when there was that earthquake it was bad for several days."
DNR calls the towns water system "unsanitary," and "unacceptable," You can see the neglect -- from rotting equipment to a badly rusted tank.
Alderman Frank Gerardot says it's the town's own fault.
"The plants been neglected and DNR won't give us any money fix up anything we're not maintaining. So they'll gladly give us money to hook up to an outside source."
So that means it will be cheaper to build a water pipeline to tap another town's water supply, ten miles away. St. Mary is just going to scrap it's entire water system.
Yet Mayor Carl Wyatt has no apologies for boil orders his residents complain about.
"Every little town around's got boil orders. There's not a town that's not had boil orders [Reporter] Is that okay? [Mayor] no but it happens."
DNR flagged this water tower as one of the towns biggest concerns. The agency noted gaps in the water tower where birds could get in. The Fox Files exposed this danger in an investigation last year. Contaminated water from a stray bird was linked to several deaths in the town of Gideon, MO.
Here's what St. Mary's Mayor had to say about the risk to his tower. "One bird flying over would be like me spitting in the ocean. I mean that may sound bad, but our water is good."
Alderman Frank Gerardot wants to do something about it. He says the council even approved money to put a protective screen on the water tank, but now they refuse to go through with it.
I asked the Mayor about it? I asked, "So there's money to spend and you guys aren't putting it up? [Mayor] I don't know where there's money to spend, who says there's money to spend?"
I later asked, "It sounds like you're rolling the dice. [Mayor] If I thought I was rolling the dice, if it was going to kill somebody, I'd go up there and put a screen on it, but I don't think in the next 3 or 4 months, if it's been there for all these years, that it's going to make that much difference [Reporter] but it has killed somebody. [Mayor] Not here.
His response to DNR's investigation? He says the state's out to get them. Maxine Giesler describes her disgust simply. She said, "If you want to know my thoughts (and they're not very good) I think they're very ignorant."
Residents hope this is a lesson for those of us who take our water for granted - it's always cheaper to maintain something - than it is to assume it will just be there when we need it.
According to the Department of Natural Resouces, the City of St. Mary told state regulators it would break ground on a water pipeline to another town by the spring of 2008. As of today -- no one has lifted a shovel.
Jody Odem showed us a sample he collected. He lives in St. Mary, MO, a small town on the river just South of Ste. Genevieve.
Maxine Giesler sees it a lot. She called the water, "Chocolate colored, muddy."
On the morning of our visit, she had to run her tap for awhile until it came out clear for her dog to drink. She said she told her dog, "Queenie? Am I going to have to start buying bottled water for you too?"
Bottled water is the only kind of water many people in this town will drink.
Odem added, "You have to. I mean would you drink this?"
Mayor Carl Wyatt drinks it. He said, "Since 1974, I drink the water [Reporter] You're not afraid to drink the water? [Mayor] I'm not afraid to drink the water. I've seen the tests. Now when we do have a bad run, whenever something happens to one of the lines or something, no. [Reporter] Sometimes it comes out brown. [Mayor] Yes, sometimes it comes out brown, but that's usually when there's been a flush or a there's been a fire, or when there was that earthquake it was bad for several days."
DNR calls the towns water system "unsanitary," and "unacceptable," You can see the neglect -- from rotting equipment to a badly rusted tank.
Alderman Frank Gerardot says it's the town's own fault.
"The plants been neglected and DNR won't give us any money fix up anything we're not maintaining. So they'll gladly give us money to hook up to an outside source."
So that means it will be cheaper to build a water pipeline to tap another town's water supply, ten miles away. St. Mary is just going to scrap it's entire water system.
Yet Mayor Carl Wyatt has no apologies for boil orders his residents complain about.
"Every little town around's got boil orders. There's not a town that's not had boil orders [Reporter] Is that okay? [Mayor] no but it happens."
DNR flagged this water tower as one of the towns biggest concerns. The agency noted gaps in the water tower where birds could get in. The Fox Files exposed this danger in an investigation last year. Contaminated water from a stray bird was linked to several deaths in the town of Gideon, MO.
Here's what St. Mary's Mayor had to say about the risk to his tower. "One bird flying over would be like me spitting in the ocean. I mean that may sound bad, but our water is good."
Alderman Frank Gerardot wants to do something about it. He says the council even approved money to put a protective screen on the water tank, but now they refuse to go through with it.
I asked the Mayor about it? I asked, "So there's money to spend and you guys aren't putting it up? [Mayor] I don't know where there's money to spend, who says there's money to spend?"
I later asked, "It sounds like you're rolling the dice. [Mayor] If I thought I was rolling the dice, if it was going to kill somebody, I'd go up there and put a screen on it, but I don't think in the next 3 or 4 months, if it's been there for all these years, that it's going to make that much difference [Reporter] but it has killed somebody. [Mayor] Not here.
His response to DNR's investigation? He says the state's out to get them. Maxine Giesler describes her disgust simply. She said, "If you want to know my thoughts (and they're not very good) I think they're very ignorant."
Residents hope this is a lesson for those of us who take our water for granted - it's always cheaper to maintain something - than it is to assume it will just be there when we need it.
According to the Department of Natural Resouces, the City of St. Mary told state regulators it would break ground on a water pipeline to another town by the spring of 2008. As of today -- no one has lifted a shovel.
