No water has north Raleigh residents wanting answers

Wednesday, September 27, 2017
No water has north Raleigh residents wanting answers
Hundreds of north Raleigh residents have been without water for three days, and now, they want answers.

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Hundreds of north Raleigh residents have been without water for three days, and now, they want answers.

"We have meals to cook, children to bathe, it's very frustrating," said Lori Edwards.

Edwards has lived in the Stonehenge neighborhood in north Raleigh for 15 years.

Her water system is well water, and she said she's grown up on well water, so she's not new to the system.

She said they've had water issues in years past but not like this.

"It's been three days," said Edwards. "We want to know what the problem is and when it's gonna be fixed."

The problem is a lack of water according to Shannon Becker, President of Aqua North Carolina.

Aqua North Carolina runs 700 systems, but he said four wells are essentially tapped out in two north Raleigh communities.

"We're aware that we're experiencing higher demand in this system," said Becker. "There are two different systems, Stonehenge and Crescent Ridge and those two systems, in particular, are receiving higher than normal demand. The wells are not able to keep up capacity, or I'm sorry the wells are not able to meet up with the demand that the customers are using there."

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He blames the issue on a lack of rain and an increase in people using water. He said people typically use more water in September and October.

Another issue people are having is the water that's coming out of the faucet is brown.

"This is unfortunately what starts to happen when a well gets drawn down to its lower levels, you start pulling minerals, iron or manganese," said Becker. "It's not harmful to your health it's an aesthetic concern."

Still, people don't want to drink brown water, so the water company has delivered water to residents.

Becker said they are working on an alternative water source. There is also a water restriction in place for non-essential use, so people are being asked not to water their grass, shrubs, or plants.

On the company's site it said, if followed, the water restrictions could help replenish the wells in one or two days. Becker hopes to be back to normal within a day.

For more information about the alert, visit Aqua's website.

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