Scituate residents sick of their dirty water

SCITUATE, Mass. - It's not unusual for Diane Seelig to run her water for hours.

"It never occurred to me that that people could have a problem like this,” Seelig said. “It's filthy, disgusting water. I turn it on in the morning then I run it at late at night."

For many Scituate residents, their water is brown, and it has been for years. Some days it appears darker than your morning cup of coffee.

Part of the problem is a decaying pipe system, parts of which are more than 100 years old.

Also, the beach town's population soars during the summer, nearly doubling in July and August, which puts an incredible amount of added stress on those pipes.

“We usually do about a million gallons of water a day,” Scituate Town Administrator Jim Boudreau said. “Last week we were up over 2.5 with the holiday. That increase flow does cause problems with pipes."

Boudreau says the town needs to replace more than 100 miles of pipes and that a plan is in place.

“No question it's been years and years of neglect in the system,” Boudreau said. “Again, the town is going to spend about $22 million over a five, six-year period to fix some of this."

One Scituate resident has taken it upon himself to pinpoint where the problem areas are in town.

“It makes it clear where problems are and shows it’s not an incidental problem, it seems to be structural," Bernie Westerveld said.

Westerveld has set up a map with colorful dots, each representing a different level of discoloration in the water.

Blue dots represent clear water, grey-ish dots show a little discoloration, yellow show yellow water and red dots show places where the water comes out of the tap brown.

The town says even though the water doesn't look healthy, it is safe to drink. They urge residents to use common sense.

Officials say they expect to replace more of the pipes next spring.

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