MUDDY WATER Maggie Day

Muddy Water Greenville has a plan to clear up its brown drinking water. But is the price too much to swallow? o most folks in Greenville, brown water is old news, certainly nothing to fuss over. After all, they have been born and raised, bathed and baptized in what could be mistaken for sweet tea. They wash dishes in it, soak linens in it and fill ice trays with it. After a while, many say they don’t even notice the color. They gulp it down without a thought. t

BY MAGGIE DAY

In fact, many say they prefer Greenville water, which tastes just a little different from your average glass of tap water.

When Barack Obama visited the town in 2008 as a presidential candidate, he felt quite differently after seeing a murky stream come out of his morning shower at the Holiday Inn Express. Mayor Heather McTeer had been pushing for federal help to remove the brown tint from the water, and Obama was quick to pledge his support. He made a campaign promise that he would be back, and that he certainly wouldn’t forget the Delta.

It took time, but with some help from U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., the mayor’s lobbying finally paid off. Now, Greenville waits to act on a grant from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that adds up to $18.5 million to clear up the water.

But the money comes with strings. The city is required to match 25 percent, or more than $4.5 million, no small sum in a place with a rapidly deteriorating tax base. The total amount — $23 million — would allow the city to treat six of eight wells within the city limits. It is testing the system now.

For decades, these wells have pumped out brown water. But it has nothing to do with the muddy Mississippi River that flows by the town.

The cause rests deep underground, where centuries-old cypress roots thrive in the aquifer from which the wells draw. The roots’ tint seeps into the water, giving it a nearly tobacco-colored hue. That’s what residents see when they turn on the water to brush their teeth.

City officials insist that the water is completely harmless. It is treated regularly for bacteria and any excessive minerals. According to then-Public Works Director Brad Jones, all chemicals in the water are within EPA standards, and no one has to worry when drinking or bathing in it.

“We put a little fluoride in the water, and some chlorine is in there as well,” Jones said. “I like the water in our city; it’s soft. If you go elsewhere, you get hard water. I like to shampoo my hair here; it makes it feel soft,” he said with a chuckle, as he rubbed his balding scalp.

Three companies have approached the city with different methods to clear the water, the most prominent being an ion-exchange system in the wells, where charged ionic chemicals attract the tint and grab it right out of the water. Other options include reverse osmosis and nano-filtration, both of which use semi

permeable membranes that let water molecules pass but filter out color and contaminants. According to Jones, these processes will most likely be ruled out because 10 percent of the water pumped from the wells would go to waste, compared with only 1 percent when the ion-exchange method is used. Reverse osmosis also requires a lot of energy, he said.

Greenville also has to consider turbidity, or haziness of the water, measured in nephelometric turbidity units, or NTUs. The higher the NTU, the cloudier the water.

“We are looking to see which method will offer the most effectiveness,” Jones said. “Can they get us down from 70 NTUs to zero? What are the costs and projected offerings?”

Pascagoula has used the reverse osmosis method since 1999. As a result, Jones said, little or no color is noticeable in Pascagoula’s water.

“By the end of the year, we hope to nail down which (method) is right,” Jones said.

To city officials, the need for clear water stems from a natural stigma – brown water is dirty water. When visitors come to Greenville, disgust is usually the first emotion experienced when they lift the toilet seat to find water that looks like someone failed to flush.

Hotels frequently display small signs on their front desks with a clever rhyme to explain why the water is brown, but nothing deflects the initial shock of seeing brown water flow into the bathtub.

Jones said hotels and casinos in Greenville have been forced to put in their own filtration systems, because the brown water leaves stains. For example, the Harlow’s casino on U.S. Highway 82 draws from the same well the city does, but its filtration system gets rid of the tint.

“Everyone in Greenville has to bleach,” Jones said. “Hotels and casinos want their linens white. So this saves them the cost of bleaching – it gets expensive and can damage fabrics as well.”

MIRIAM TAYLOR Greenville’s muddy tap water gets sold for laughs at the McCormick Book Inn.

“My socks are white, but not that white,” City Engineer Lorenzo Anderson said with a smile.

It is just that kind of reaction that city officials worry about, along with a fear that finding brown water in the sink could scare away prospective businesses and industries, not to mention new residents.

“It definitely makes an impression when attracting industries,” McTeer said. “I’m used to it. The doctor that is visiting is not.”

McTeer believes that if Greenville chooses to accept and match the grant to treat the water, it could have a “tremendous impact on the economy.”

“The water would still be soft,” she said. “The process just takes the color out.”

“Economically speaking, we need this to happen,” Anderson said. “If you can, spend that $4.5 million, especially considering the fact that someone is offering a grant.”

McTeer did not stop her lobbying with the president or the Army Corps of Engineers. She also attended the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, where former President Bill Clinton came up to her and told her that he wanted to help. She said Clinton and others have been keeping up with the project since she announced it.

The project is “absolutely going to be done,” McTeer said. “We wouldn’t be this far along if other groups weren’t willing to invest and help. I’m a staunch believer that if the money is out there, we’re gonna go get it.”

The problem: Not everyone thinks it’s worth it.

Some residents see the project as a waste of valuable resources that could go toward improving public education, revitalizing downtown or repaving one of Greenville’s main roads – Washington Avenue, which is so bumpy and potholed in places that gravel might actually be easier to drive on.

“We do not need to be spending all of that money when our water is perfectly fine,” said retired Planters Bank President Chuck Jordan, a mayoral candidate. “I drink the water every day.”

“With everything else we need, it’s ridiculous to spend that kind of money,” said former state Republican Party Chairman Clarke Reed.

Though McTeer is adamant about seeing the project through, this is her last year as mayor. A new mayor will be elected in December and McTeer is running for Congress.

Ultimately, the city council will decide whether to accept the grant.

Implementing the ion-exchange system would take place over about three years, according to McTeer and Jones. If Jordan wins the election, the project could very easily be forgotten.

“You never know if it will pass,” Jones said. “It’s a big project, but it’s justified.”

In the meantime, guests arriving in Greenville will continue to see a card with this rhyme at the front desk of their hotel, or perhaps perched next to the bathroom sink:

“You may be wondering why our water is brown — it’s cypress tree roots, in the springs underground.

Y’all can drink our water and bathe without fear.

For no one lives longer than the folks around here.”