COLUMBIA, S.C. — For weeks, residents in Winnsboro say they have been complaining about bad-smelling water.
It's been a stinky situation for Doug Broom of Winnsboro. He says for the past three weeks his tap water has had an odd, repulsive taste and smell. He says it's gotten to a point where he's even boiling drinking water for his dog.
"You just can't drink it. It's nasty. Try to mix it with tea, still you can still taste it," Broom said. "I've been to some restaurants and they serve water, people are taking it back, saying, 'look we don't want it.'"
It's a similar situation for Nicole Tate. She lives and works in Winnsboro and says getting filtered water from the grocery store is costing her big time.
"They were out of the regular bottled water. They can't keep it in because we're all buying it, as far as the big jugs because we're having to cook with it," Tate said. "A jug of tea, that's $1.38 for that jug of water, so say if you're cooking, I may use two or three jugs. I mean it adds ten to twenty dollars to my expenses a day."
The Town of Winnsboro says they’re trying to locate the exact source of the issue and they’re working with DHEC to resolve the problem.
In the meantime, they’ve increased the level of active carbon in the water, and introduced copper sulfate that should remove the taste and odor from drinking water. However, the town assured people the water is still safe to drink.
Tate just hopes the problem is solved soon.
"I just hope something happens now and I hope its not two more weeks later that we're talking about this."
