Concerns over safety of drinking water in Forsyth - wgxa.tv

Concerns over safety of drinking water in Forsyth | WGXA

FORSYTH, Ga. (WGXA) -- People in Monroe County are no strangers to safety concerns when it comes to the water flowing from their faucets. After all, the community of Juliette has experienced years of trouble surrounding contaminated water and questions of the relation to Georgia Power's unlined coal ash ponds at Plant Scherer.

However, it’s now the city of Forsyth receiving attention after the Environmental Protection Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Recourses found the city of Forsyth to be in violation of its treatment of water sewage waste, as well as a list of other violations; 38 violations just since August 2018.

Now, two women living near a water treatment facility on Hwy. 42. are speaking up about their concerns.

"All of this runs right up my property," Cheryl Maganti says she's sick and tired of asking the city to maintain its overgrowth creeping close to her property line.

It's not a fence that separates her property from the city's water treatment facility location, which is overseen by water treatment plant design company, H2O Innovation. The city's property line exceeds the fence barrier. Facing the facility, and to the left of the fence line is overgrowth. Brush, thorns, and a whole lot of the fast-growing and invasive plant that has taken over much of the south - Kudzu. However, what began as a story about the city's unwillingness to keep up with the maintenance of their property on the other side of the fence, an ongoing struggle for adjoining property owner, Cheryl Maganti since 2010, quickly took a turn like a fork in a river.

"I don't drink the water here, I never have drank the water here," said Maganti. "I just don't trust it”.

After speaking with Maganti and her tenant and neighbor, Lanie Corley, WGXA quickly learned there may be more going on surrounding the city's waterworks.

They say a representative named "Joey," from H2O Innovations came out and spoke with them Thursday about the overgrowth. That's when Corley brought up her own concerns of the water flowing into her home.

"You can't drink the water, I promise you'll get diarrhea," explained Corley. "That's when we figured it's because of the water."

She said clay and dirt come out of the faucets, and even with a filter on her sink, she won't even cook with the water without boiling it, and she definitely doesn't give it to her dogs. In fact, the experienced reptile and aquatic rescuer and rehabilitator said when she moved to Juliette and used the local water to fill the animal's, even with the proper conditioning agents used to balance pH levels for aquariums, her fish died. As for the turtles, they died as well. She gave it a few more goes with new aquariums of new fish. None were successful until she switched to conditioning bottled water with the pH balancing chemicals. For Corley, that's just a small example in a sea of problems surrounding Forsyth's water.

She says "Joey" promised her the water was safe. So, she offered him a glass.

"He was trying to say the water quality isn't that bad, and I asked him if my water is in fact coming from this plant and into my home, and if he is 100 percent confident in his water, then I wanted him to come over and have a glass of ice water with me," Corley explained, detailing her previous day's conversation with the H2O representative. "He declined the offer and drank his Culligan water out of a bottle".

The city has declined to comment on the EPD violations. H2O declined to make a statement at a city hall meeting two weeks ago. WGXA called the phone number "Joey" gave to Corley. There was no answer, however, a voicemail recording said the number belonged to a man named "Craig".

"They love to keep you confused in this city, so nobody is responsible for anything," Corley said.

WGXA will continue to investigate this story.