EDMONSON COUNTY, Ky. – Edmonson County residents are noticing what some say is a concerning difference in their drinking water.
One local resident, Jenny Turley, recounts her initial reaction when she saw what the water was doing to her washcloth.
Jenny says: “Shock! I was shocked. I was surprised. I always knew it smelled like chlorine, but when I went so far as to completely bleach the rag after dripping it on for six hours, I was shocked and horrified.”
A few years ago, Jenny equipped her house with a filtration system because she was also concerned that the water had negative effects on people's health.
She says, “A lady, that's my neighbor up the street, she posted in this post and said she had migraines three and four days a week. And she got one of the letters from the water district and stopped drinking tap water. She now has two to three migraine attacks every three months. It was an instant change.”
Edmonson County Water District officials told us they are currently treating the water and added chlorine levels are normal.
“When I work with the water utility, my job has always been to serve the people and try to provide good, clean drinking water. You know, that's our job. We have to add chlorine to the water to disinfect it, and if we didn’t have chlorine it wouldn’t be safe to drink.”
Dr. Jason Polk, a professor of environmental geosciences at Western Kentucky University and director of the Center for Human GeoEnvironmental Studies, agrees that the treatment levels are not dangerous, even though the water may look a little different.
Based on his experience conducting tests for hundreds of water distributors, he says, “Often these utilities will not only check the facility where the water is treated, but also the entire system in various areas to ensure that the chlorine levels are correct. “Keep the level high enough to kill anything that would be potentially harmful. But then also make sure that value is maintained so that the water is safe no matter where it is used.”
Although this is considered safe, many people are still concerned about the chemicals in the water and think it should be disinfected in other ways.
Several families have now installed water filters on their taps to limit the amount of chemicals.
If you prefer this option, there are also some in-home systems such as Berkey water filtration systems and Aquasauna Culligan water filtration systems. There is also a store, the Nutrition Center at 715 US 31-W Bypass, that has a seven-stage water filtration system. You must bring your own bottles at 8 cents per gallon.
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