RIPLEY, Ohio — Ripley residents may finally get some relief after years of dealing with water quality issues.
Those that live in the Brown County village said their water has often been brown, staining sinks and bathtubs.
They've also complained to village officials about hard water issues.
Samantha Gray, the owner of Studio 28, a hair salon, said the water issues have impacted her business.
"It could start coming out clear, then it might switch over," she said. "As soon as I do a fresh color a lot of times, I have to let the water run. I've had to buy water."
Both village officials and residents have said it's not a new problem.
"This is not a problem that's occurred over the last two years. This problem has been ongoing for probably 20 years," said Nowana Bingaman, the Village of Ripley's mayor.
She said she sympathizes with residents.
"I get as frustrated as they do when I have to replace a water heater," Bingaman said. "It's not deaf ears. We are working on this."
Village officials said the brown color is due to increased levels of iron in the water, but they recently made a switch to filter the iron out.
They said it's taken this long to address the problem for a few reasons.
"The prior administration didn't do what they should've done," Bingaman said.
Additionally, she said the Village voted in 2021 to sell the water system to the Brown County Rural Water Association, who would take over the treatment of the water. But officials said the Village faced financial roadblocks and is waiting on EPA approval to move forward with the transfer.
They said they didn't want to spend the roughly $300,000 on a facility that was set to be out of use, so they were waiting, but the EPA had a different message.
"This is a requirement, you are either going to upgrade the facility, do the repairs that are needed or you are going to be fined," said Greg Wilson, Ripley's utility manager.
Wilson said those upgrades include changes to reduce the iron and make the water clear. He said Wednesday the iron numbers are already down.
"We're now removing over 95% of the iron that is naturally in the well water," he said.
Part of that process is flushing the fire hydrants, so he said residents might notice the problem getting worse before it gets better.
Wilson said in previous months, the iron levels in the water were sometimes at more than 400 micrograms, but are now down to 10-20 micrograms.
Because of these reduced numbers, he said the water at the water treatment plant is currently running clear.
Wilson said that means residents can expect to see that clear water at home in the next week or so.
Some Ripley residents, like Gray are skeptical, though.
"For me, it's just going to see actually doing a load of laundry and it's not ruined," she said.
Wilson said the Village is also implementing a softening process in the next week to reduce hard water.
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