Lone Grove water still off for some residents

LONE GROVE — Two weeks after the local water service was shut down after weed killer contaminated the system, nine homes remained without water Tuesday.

Charges could be filed against the company responsible for the contamination and will be considered after water service is fully restored.

The town, eight miles west of Ardmore, with an estimated 1,300 water customers, has been having major water problems since Jan. 23, when a business owner inadvertently siphoned a concentrated weed killer cocktail into the city's water supply while he was trying to dilute the herbicide concentrate inside a spray rig.

A water main break, which created a backflow in the water lines, caused the chemicals to be sucked into the water system.

Cindy Worrell, who lives in one of the nine houses still without water, said her biggest concern Tuesday evening was the inconvenience of not being able to bathe, wash dishes or eat at home, or even flush her toilets without dumping bottled water into the tank.

Her long-term concerns, however, are just as pressing.

Like other residents in the city, both Worrell and her live-in mother, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, drank the contaminated water before they were notified of the danger by city crews.

She's still waiting on final tests to learn how contaminated her water may have been, but Worrell said it was apparently bad enough to turn the water blue in at least one local creek.

While Worrell and her neighbors wait to get more test results from the state Department of Environmental Quality, the owner of the pesticide company believed to be responsible for the damage may be facing charges.

Jack Carson with the state Agriculture Department, said both his department and environmental officers are dealing with the immediate issue of getting the water clean. As soon as that is taken care of charges will be considered in the next two weeks.