ADDYSTON, Ohio — Some Addyston residents said they have had to call in the Environmental Protection Agency to fix their home water issues after village officials failed to help.
Paul Young said he's been dealing with low water pressure and sometimes, no water at all.
“I have worried myself to death about this," Young said. "I can’t even wash my house down. I can’t wash the truck and it’s downhill."
Born in Addyston, the 74-year-old has lived in the village for most of his life. He said the water issues started in the past few years, but worsened in December.
He showed WCPO what happens when he turns on his kitchen faucet. With the valve open all the way, the water is a slow stream at most.
He said his machine never fills up, and he and his wife have had to rely on bottled water.
"We don’t drink the water for the simple reason the water pressure is too low. We pay the water bill and drink our water out of bottle and that’s coffee too," Young said. "It’s just a pain. It’s a hardship for us too.”
Young was a plumber for nearly 20 years working all over the Tri-State. He said a regular outdoor faucet should yield 5 gallons of water per minute whereas a kitchen faucet should yield 1 3/4 gallons in that time.
Young said he's lucky if they get half that.
"We can't even register water on the faucet; we don't get any water most of the time," he said.
Young isn't alone. His neighbor Tracy Carpenter said she's had water issues since she moved into her rental home seven years ago.
She said it takes around 45 minutes to an hour to fill up her bathtub and sometimes her water comes out black.
"You can’t do dishes and have somebody flush the toilet in here, I lose all my water," Carpenter said. "When you’re doing laundry, you can’t touch nothing. You have to go in and stop it if you have to go to the restroom."
When her friend's son went to pour a glass of water from the kitchen faucet one day, mud came out instead, she said.
"When that mud finally came through and that water finally came busting through, it threw mud all over her and the kitchen," Carpenter said. "When I told them about it they told me it was just sediment sitting in my pipes and to just run my water more often."
Young said he's gone to several council and water board meetings but to no avail. His complaints are only ever brushed aside he said.
"How do you fight somebody that don’t care? It’s my life, [Carpenter's] life, everyone in this town’s life," Young said. "I just got fed up after all these months having nothing."
Young said after getting nowhere at village meetings, he had to call the EPA for someone to finally come out to his home and fix his water pressure.
Young said they did, temporarily. The water only lasted about a week before the pressure dropped again.
Young said he's now reached a breaking point and blames village leaders for the water issues plaguing him and some of his neighbors.
"It’s maintenance in this village that’s been run down so long," he said. "That’s what’s wrong with it."
The Addyston Water Department said there's another reason, however.
Village Maintenance Supervisor Dustan Struckman said the village's main water line is running how it should — at 70 pounds per square inch (psi) — and Young and Carpenter's issues are with their own water lines.
The water department was out working on Young's water Monday morning.
Struckman sent this statement on his crew's efforts.
"The water issue at this residence is an isolated incident. The gentleman's waterline is clogged from the water meter to his house. The Addyston water department was doing a courtesy to the homeowner on 9/26/2022 trying to clean out his water line trying to prevent him from having to call a contractor and have his service line replaced."
Young disagrees. He still argues the village is at fault.
“When you’ve got 48 psi on your faucet and you ain’t got any water, it ain’t the lines,” he said.
In general, residential water pressure ranges between 45-80 psi. 40 psi and under is considered low.
"You can hear it bubbling in the water like you’re blowing in a straw," Young said. "It ain’t my lines.”
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