Consumer with "Brown" Water Objects to Paying Water Company Bill

The following article continues Westwood Minute's reporting on the persistent issue of discolored household water that many Dover residents say they receive from Colonial Water Company. 

Margaret Duggan, a nurse practitioner, lives with her husband and college-bound triplets in Dover. She has lived there since 2001 and says she has experienced no problems from her water provider, Colonial Water Company, until last year.

The experience of having discolored household water has been happening on and off for about one year, she says. She notes there was even a time when bottled water was being distributed to residents by the Town of Dover because of the problem.

In early Spring of 2020, Ms. Duggan says she started to notice small changes with her household water. Taking a bath felt like bathing in a chlorinated swimming pool. The water seemed to have a green hue. It smelled strongly of chlorine.

Then, rather than green water, she noticed the water turning brown. In the course of a week, it got worse and worse every day, she says.  One day, she could put a foot in it without seeing it touch the bottom of the bathtub. There was sediment in the water that she observed swirling around when the water was stirred. The water was the color of chardonnay.

The effects of having brownish, discolored water include skipping her habitual bath and watching her white laundry turn grey, red, or even purple. Ms. Duggan has now learned that bleach mixed with manganese can create purple. The toilet bowls all have brown rings in them.

Right now, Ms. Duggan is boiling the water. Her son drinks bottled water. Ms. Duggan's environmentally conscious daughter doesn't want to see more plastic water bottles in the environment. She instead drinks the water from a metal water bottle from which the water is not visible.

With the pandemic also going on, at one point, Ms. Duggan says the thought crossed her mind that Covid-19 is still not going away. She recalls comforting herself with the thought that at least she could have a nice bath to relax and de-stress. But upon going upstairs to prepare it, she remembered the discolored water. "Noooo!" she recalls was her reaction. 

"We shouldn't be paying for this water," says Ms. Duggan. About a week ago, Ms. Duggan told her husband to stop his online payment of the water bill, and she wrote Colonial Water a note about her intent to withhold payment. She has not received any response.

"When you pay for water, you expect clear water. We're not in a developing country. It's expected to be clear, you don't expect to have to use a filter. . . . Clean water is a necessity," she says.

Thanks to Ms. Margaret Duggan for being interviewed for this article. 

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