I am a customer of Public Water Supply #5 out of Adrian, Mo. at the end of the water line on county road 9004 in Bates County. I have had a problem with brown dirty water coming from the water district’s water line for over two years. This water supplies my home and outside hydrants and have mentioned this on occasion to water district representatives. There is a valve at the end of every water line to flush the the sediment and contamination out of the lines. In June of 2020 I was told by a reliable source the valve would not open completely thus restricting the flow. The speed of the water is what removes contamination from the water line. These valves are over forty years old and it needed to be replaced. The valve was never replaced.
The dirty water coming to my home and hydrants was an intermittent problem so I started buying water to drink. The dirty water was easy to see coming out of hydrants but more difficult in the house due to the aeration from the faucets. I have a video of the dirty water coming out of a well used hydrant. Three people have witnessed this problem and in December of 2022 a neighbor was here and opened a hydrant and out came dirty water and a white stringy substance. About a week later I took a sample out of this hydrant to Blue Valley Labs in Kansas City for an analysis and the lab report showed the chlorine which is put in the water to kill bacteria was non existence and there was living bacteria in the sample. The lab technician incubated the bacteria and it grew. She sent me a video of the living bacteria from under a microscope and advised me to not drink the water. She could not identify it and sent it a lab in Omaha and they also could not identify it.
Since the water district didn’t seem concerned the DNR has a website call Drinking Water Watch. The DNR is worthless and was told by one of their representatives they have no authority over water districts and I would probably have to hire an attorney to fix this problem.
The DNR came to my home in December to witness a sample being taken. The sample came back clean as did another sample the district took.
This is an intermittent problem but I have three witnesses and a video to verify it.
I went to a January board meeting of the water district with a proposal to pay for replacing the valve at a cost of $1850 and pay for the water to flush the lines to my satisfaction. The board president Steve Smith said they had two clean test. I said I had a test and witnesses of the dirty water and since I was using the water I was going by my test results. All the board members were there. I got no response. I went back to the February board meeting and only Steve Smith was there with their attorney. The attorney said if they accepted my offer it would look as if I had control of the board. The answer was no to my offer.
During all of this Brian Smith the water district employee had taken videos of him flushing the line. He sent these videos to the DNR in Lee’s Summit. I asked to see the videos and the DNR told me they were property of the water district and I was not to see them. I got my state representative involved and through the sunshine law they sent the videos to me. The videos showed the restricted flow. I sent the videos to people in the Plumbing business and they laughed at them and said the district employee should know it was defective.
I hired Sage Law out of Overland Park to represent me in this matter. After some research they talked with the water district’s attorney and the valve got replaced. The attorney fee was $3300 and I also spent over $500 on water sample testing. The board is weak and cannot address these issues. This is how much it cost me to do their job for them.
The board members are:
Steve Smith, President; Carl Ferguson, member; Lonnie Duckworth, member; Allen Sollars, member
These flush valves are the end of every water line throughout the district. They are over 40 years old and I took pictures of mine after it was removed and it was a chunk of rust. How many more people have an unsafe water supply in district 5 in Bates County? The board of directors are controlled by the employee who is the son of Steve Smith the board president. The board did what was easiest for them, which was nothing. This can’t go on since they have control of the public drinking water supply.
Jim Robinson, Butler, MO
