Patton village water complaints

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Patton Village residents are taking a stand against their water distributor, Martin Water.

They told FOX 26 they believe the water is making people sick in the town.

Patton Village City Hall recently had AEI Engineering inspect the water supply systems operated by Martin Water.  The results of the evaluation show numerous deficiencies in the current systems serving Patton Village. Residents feel that these deficiencies directly relate to several illnesses the town has been experiencing.  

“There’ a lot of people out here, they have stomach problems, they have parasites, and if you talk to ten citizens nine out of ten of them don't feel good,” said resident Tori Travis.

Travis said she has been drinking the water in Patton Village for 18 years and is finally putting her foot down after she was recently diagnosed with an auto immune disease.

“As I talk to people, they're sick,” she said. “They'll go ‘my God,  you know my stomach has been hurting me for months’,  you know so I know there's a major problem here .”

Travis said her sister, who she lives with, was recently diagnosed with H Pylori, a stomach infection that several other residents in the town have also been diagnosed with. The town mayor said although the city is not the one managing their water,  she is the one who hears the complaints

“I know there are a lot of people in the city that battle the H pylori,” said Leah Tarrant, Mayor of Patton Village. “Like my mom is in the hospital right now with an E.coli fecal infection.”

The water in Patton Village isn’t managed by the city, it’s managed by by Michael Martin of Martin Water. Tarrant said the city has been trying to negotiate a deal with Martin for months, but he is asking for twice as much as the company is worth. She said that since he is a privately owned company, he does not get the same funding as the city does, so he is unable to pay for updates.

“We just want Mr. Martin to make our water safe, and I have some papers and documents showing that it is not safe.

Those documents include the AEI Engineering inspection of the water systems. Throughout the report you’ll see countless deficiencies, and the overall conditions of the systems were rated as “poor”.  

Tarrant said she recently had her water inspected after her mother was diagnosed with E-coli, and will have the results in by Thursday.  

Fox 26 reached out to Martin Water several times and we have not received a comment from the company.

We will continue to follow this story.