Black Canyon City residents still without clean water - Arizona's Family

Black Canyon City residents still without clean water

BLACK CANYON CITY, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) - Black Canyon City residents are still without clean water. Last Friday, Southwestern Utility notified its customers that E. Coli was found in a sample taken on Wednesday.

“It’s disgusting that our water is unsafe to drink. It’s also disgusting and disappointing that no one seems to have it on our radar to fix this problem for our community,” said Katherine Fizz, a concerned resident. Since then, residents have needed to boil water from faucets or use bottled water.

As it now approaches day four since notified, residents like Fizz said they’re looking for answers. “When I contacted the water company, the notice that I received from them on Saturday stated that they are working on the problem, but there’s no foreseeable fix coming our way,” Fizz said.

Other residents said they’re concerned about how the company has handled the issue and why the notice to residents came a day after the company knew of the contamination. “It did catch me off guard. You know. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday all day I’m brushing my teeth. I’m bathing in the water. Not thinking we had something wrong with the well system,” said Ronald White, a long-time resident.

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality released this statement:

ADEQ and Southwestern Utility continue to ask residents to monitor how they feel and report any symptoms, including nausea, headaches, cramps, and more.

Tabatha Moyer, also a long-time resident of Black Canyon City, said she’s been experiencing these symptoms since 2018. “It’s been very tragic and very troublesome, really. It’s cost me a lot more than I would like just from medicines and traveling back and forth to the doctors,” Moyer said.

Several tests have indicated she has had an E. Coli infection in her system for several years. So, when she was notified of the water contamination, she wasn’t surprised. “My first thought was I knew it. I’ve been asking if it has been in my local water for a while.”

ADEQ said the company was out taking water samples early Monday morning, and results are expected to come on Tuesday.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2023 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.