On Your Side Investigation: Which Ozarks water systems are considered ‘chronic violators’
(KY3) — When you turn on a sink or fountain, you assume the water is safe to drink. An On Your Side Investigation reveals there are a few locations in the Ozarks that, according to the state, have ‘chronically failed to do required testing’.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources calls them Chronic Violators. These are public drinking water systems that have consistently failed to perform monthly mandatory tests. These two dozen independent water systems are a mix of resorts, neighborhoods, and churches. There’s even a senior center on the list. The owners were sent multiple violation notices and certified letters.
What does this mean? If they’re not testing every month, we don’t know what’s in the water.
“I didn’t know we were supposed to be doing it,” said Janeine Plumlee with Ozark Beach Resort.
She says for years, she was unaware she had to do monthly tests for bacteria. It was brought to her attention, and she says she’s working to make things right.
For the last six months, there’s been a boil order.
“It is frustrating, I have to tell everyone who enters the park,” she said.
Plumlee has had samples with concerning results.
“That doesn’t mean in has e coli, it means it could be the starting of some sort of pathogen,” she said.
Because of that positive result, she must collect more samples from different places and submit those to the state on time. Or it’s another violation.
“It’s a lot. For a business owner, when you have so much to do and they want it done a certain way,” said Plumlee.
She has a corrective action plan with DNR. She’s also in the process of installing a new $12,000 chlorination system, which should be up and running in a few weeks.
“I could have done better, but they could a lot better too. They could make it easier,” she said.
There were seven months last year when Lodges at Table Rock Resort didn’t submit samples. On Your Side reached out asking for an interview and was told in an email:
“Our association was previously ran by a management company who was not submitting these test results (and we were unaware of this). We have let that management company go effective Feb 28 and now under new management, we have gotten this corrected.”
Down the road, Victory Pointe Resort is also on the chronic violators list. No samples were submitted for five months last year, and that continued into 2025. On Your Side reached out for comment, but we haven’t heard back.
“It’s important for customers of any water system to know their water quality results,” said Patrick Vavra, Compliance and Enforcement Public Drinking Water Branch, Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
“So when they’re not sampling them, they can’t say for sure what their water quality is,” he said.
Chronic violators comprise less than one percent of the nearly three thousand Missouri public water systems.
Also on the list is Kimberling Area Senior Center, which had four monitoring violations last year. Following those violations, public notices were displayed. A few months ago, Coliform and E. coli were detected in the kitchen sink, but DNR tells us the latest tests checked out fine. Senior center leaders told On Your Side in an email that the issue has been resolved.
Then there’s Ozark Park Estates in Branson. The last time DNR got a monthly sample from here was in November. A coliform was detected, but it’s not clear where in the park the sample came from. Before that November sample, the previous one was from February 2023. There’s a long list of violations that go back to 1986.
“For Ozark Park Estates, that’s one system that we actually do have an enforcement,” said Vavra.
An administrative order says this community is in ‘violation of the Missouri Safe Drinking Water Law’. All water systems must pay yearly fees. Ozark Park Estates hasn’t paid in years and owes $832.91
“Not real happy about,” said Dawn Drew. “We’re trying. One step at a time. They’re working with me. They’re really great.”
She’s lived here for about twenty years and is volunteering to fix things. The folks here own the lots, but there’s a monthly maintenance fee, and she says many don’t pay.
Drew believes the water is safe to drink because she does daily chlorination tests. DNR tells On Your Side that this system chlorinates because it’s a grandfathered well.
“We don’t have money to get a new system. We don’t have people interested in taking over our system,” Drew said.
Drew says she will start submitting those monthly monitoring samples to DNR.
Systems can be removed from the chronic violators list. If a system submits the required number of routine monthly bacteriological samples on time every month, it will be removed from the Chronic Monitoring Violators webpage as soon as it falls below four missed samples in the last twelve months.
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