Wonder who has brown water in Housatonic? A resident has created an interactive 'discoloration map' to log it | South Berkshires | berkshireeagle.com

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Cecilia Turner, shown in Housatonic, has built the website Housatonic Water Action, which features an interactive "discoloration map" for customers of Housatonic Water Works Co. to log water quality problems. The company says the problem stems from excess manganese in the Long Pond source during the warm months.

GREAT BARRINGTON — It’s been hard to know how many people have yellow or brown water, and when they have it.

But one resident is trying to fix that. Cecilia Turner, who lives in the center of Housatonic village with her family, has started a website, “Housatonic Water Action,” where home and business owners can anonymously log discolored water for inclusion into an interactive Google map with their address.

They can also add in the date of the problem, photos of the water and other comments. Within 24 hours, the map automatically shows the locations of those reporting discoloration.

“The goal of the site is to keep people informed and help the community with as many facts and straightforward information as we can get,” Turner said. “The goal is transparency. We’re trying to help people as much as we can.”

The “discoloration map,” Turner hopes, will yield data that will help solve a stubborn problem that occurs mostly in the warmer months and wreaks havoc with the daily lives of some customers. She said it only serves as a visual tool, and that water quality problems should also be reported to the town's Board of Health.

Housatonic resident Maureen Quigley holds up a bottle of water collected from her home in 2022 in Berkshire Superior Court. An interactive "discoloration map" on the new Housatonic Water Action website allows Housatonic Water Works Co. customers to log problems, which then appear on the map.

It has long been a question of exactly how many water customers are experiencing the problem, other than complaints made to the company, the Board of Health, or the press.

The discolored water, the company’s owners say, stems from excess manganese in the Long Pond source. The old filtration system can’t manage the higher levels that are released from sediment during warm months.

While regulators say the water is safe to drink, a water sample in July revealed a spike that put the company in violation of health standards for drinking water. While the levels dropped again in August, the revelation rattled a community also worried about other compounds in the water.

The company expects to have a new greensand filtration system up and running by next summer, before the source water warms. Company officials say it should resolve the problem. Purchase and installation of the new system is part of the reason for the five-year, phased-in rate hike that began on Aug. 1.

The problems have landed the town and the waterworks in court, and prompted an information meeting last week about a possible purchase of the company by the town.

Turner, who is married to Select Board member Ben Elliott and has a young child and a dog, said the couple moved to the village three years ago, and bought a whole house filter as well as a Berkey drinking water filter for the kitchen — “standard procedure” for moving to Housatonic, she said.

Their household, however, has been spared the coffee-colored water some residents are plagued with during the summer.

“Every now and then," Turner said, "it’s still kind of tea water in the bathtub."

And it is this difference from house to house, she said, that was “the impetus" for the website and discoloration map.

“How can my neighbors’ water be dark brown?” Turner said of those seemingly "random" differences.

As of Monday there were 18 reports logged into the discoloration map. One log regarding unappetizing water came from a Division Street household.

“Tan colored water,” the report said, of a Sept. 1 problem. “Not drinking. Instead go downtown GB to fill jugs. Been this way all summer.”

Turner used a Squarespace template to build the site. It includes an input for emails, so she can eventually share data and other information. And she checks to make sure there aren’t any duplicate logs to keep it "anonymous but validated."

While Turner is spearheading the effort, she is backed by the Housatonic the Beautiful Committee, and is pulling together a subcommittee to focus on the water issue.

Turner hopes the effort will grow into something that can do more.

“We want to find out what the community needs,” she said, “and be a resource that people can trust.”

Heather Bellow can be reached at [email protected] or 413-329-6871.

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