Swampscott residents hate that dirty water

SWAMPSCOTT – For the last 14 months, Tom Cooper has been buying bottled water and taking showers at health clubs to avoid the brown-colored tap water in his home.Cooper was joined by several of his neighbors from 14 affected homes from the Blodgett Avenue, Muriel Road and Lodge Road area at a Board of Selectmen meeting to bring to light the issue of rust in their water. Though the conversation remained civil, Cooper and others admitted they were frustrated.Ruel Longfellow of 21 Muriel Road brought along plastic water bottles filled with the rust-tinted tap water from his home and passed them to selectmen, inviting them to drink, though no one did.?I don?t think you?d want to shower in it,” said Laura McDunough, a Muriel Road resident who said her water was brown.According to Department of Public Works Director Gino Cresta, who had consulted the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority, the discoloration was caused by water sitting in the pipes overnight. To combat it, Cresta has been flushing out the hydrants to clear the rust water at the request of the affected neighbors, but he said he would now be flushing them every Friday afternoon. The residents praised Cresta for his cooperation and aid.Cresta said using the funds that were saved from past project on Paradise Road, the pipes would be re-lined, but after preliminary work, the project would have to be paused during the winter so the water main wouldn?t freeze. Therefore, the project would not be finished until AprilAlthough the MWRA tested the water and deemed the discoloration harmless, Longfellow and others felt that since there was no real way to know how the chemicals could affect one?s body overtime, they didn?t want to risk drinking it.?By the time these are fixed, for some it will have been two years,” said Longfellow, who added that he was worried most about the ” contamination and the long term effects if you drink it.”While Selectman Glenn Kessler suggested the town reimburse the residents for the months that they had paid the same water bills as other town residents who had not been affected. “I can?t imagine all the people that are here with children not being able to have most fundamental part of living in United States, which is having clean water,” he said.Selelctman Barry Greenfield said that proposal would “open up a whole other can of worms,” since the residents did not need purified water for washing laundry or in their toilets, and because not every house on the area was affected. “Only 25 percent of the water you used is for drinking purposes,” said Greenfield. He suggested the town pay for bottled water only for the residents going forward.