Does this water look safe to drink? The Hugo, Oklahoma Water Dept. says it is.
Jessica Childers-Teague is a mom in Hugo, Oklahoma who's recent
Facebook post has gone viral (with the photo above):
On July 17th after we had a long day of swimming in our pool I took Hayden "bubba" in and put him in the shower. I have always stopped the bath tub so that he could play in the water. I had been cleaning up the bathroom picking swim suits up and hanging the over shower rod when I seen this water. I simply asked bubba if he pooped in the tub he looked at me crazy saying no!! I asked him to sit down so I could take a picture so we could show how you couldn't even see his legs. As soon as I took the picture he got out then I posted my picture. I sent this to my water dpt in sawyer and asked if the water was safe and they said yes. My husband even went up to the water dpt and they still was saying it was fine nothing was wrong with the water. Okay I get it that nothing is wrong that could KILL you but the water shouldn't be this brown and be okay. (That was my thoughts) are water was still nasty we called deq for complaint and still said it's fine. When I then asked why is it brown they said bc the flood has caused so much water pushing into the plant their machines can't keep up with the water but it's getting what it needs to be drinkable. Okay I haven't really said much I still popped off to my water dpt about not paying for this dirty poop or piss looking water.
Gross, right? This wasn't a one-time event. This has been happening
for years:
About 7,000 Hugo-area residents didn’t have safe drinking water for months because a private corporation failed to properly disinfect the city’s supply and misreported data to city and state officials.
The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality discovered Severn Trent Services didn’t use enough chlorine for more than 300 days over the course of two years. Hugo residents were potentially exposed to deadly viruses and bacteria because the company didn’t use the most basic water disinfecting chemical, according to agency findings.
Hugo residents
describe their water supply:
Call anywhere in Hugo — or even in nearby communities — and they’ll all tell you about the water.
Some say it’s green. Others say it’s brown. A little foggy, others say. Nearly all of them say it smells bad, or at least that it seems “off.”
The water supply is privately contracted out to Severn Trent and after Jessica Childers-Teague's photo began to go viral, it caught the attention of Erin Brockovich, who is working on another case related to Severn Trent in Houston:
“This photograph from Hugo, Oklahoma, just pisses me off,” Brockovich wrote under the photo of Childers-Teague’s son, which she posted on her own Facebook page.
“And guess who operates this system, too, Severn Trent Water ... the same international privatization conglomerate that’s doing this to Monroe, Louisiana. Hummmmmm.”
Officials from Severn Trent continue to maintain that the water is safe.
Bannen said heavy “spring rains” affected Lake Hugo’s water quality, contributing to its murky appearance.
“All of the water that we produced, in the time period discussed, was chlorinated.
According to Jessica Childers-Teague, Erin Brockovich has promised to get the residents of Hugo help to fight for clean water. Activists and water policy experts are calling for
Oklahoma to end the partnership with Severn Trent and return the water supply to locals.
“In-house public management is the best way to have local oversight to ensure compliance and to ensure everyone has access to safe and affordable service,” she said.
The Hugo problem is more difficult for the DEQ because Severn Trent is a publicly traded, multinational corporation the city hired to manage its water supply, Ward said.
“They should have the knowledge and expertise to do that,” he said. “This isn’t just a small town that made a few mistakes; this is a large company.”
In the meantime, residents are
saying they've had enough and plan to move.