Delcambre resident complains to aldermen that his city water is too dirty

DELCAMBRE — Delcambre resident Ricky Bourque is getting some relief from the town on his water bill while the town looks to figure out why the water he is getting from the town’s water service is so dirty.
Bourque spoke to the town’s Board of Aldermen at the monthly board meeting on Monday, and showed them a filter he had taken off the system he uses between the town service line and his house. The filter was stained a dark, rusty brownish red color. Bourque said he’s had to change the filter after only a couple of days use, a $15 a filter.
“I filled up a 55-gallon drum from my hose before it barely even got clear,” Bourque said. “When we get out of the shower, we’ve got to take some bottled water — we go to the little windmill, it costs 35 cents — and we’ve got to rinse ourself off with that.”
“That’s not acceptable,” town Alderman Bryan Glatter said. “We have to figure out what we can do.”
Bourque said he knows it’s time to change his water filter when he turns on the faucet and only gets a few drips.
“When I do that, I undo it (the filter) and pour it in a bucket, and it looks like orange Kool-Aid,” Bourque said.
“You need clean, running water,” Alderwoman Sarah Trahan said.
Bourque said he likes to grow fresh vegetables in a small garden and enjoys sharing with the elderly. After a while, his garden started dying. He watered two plants, one with the town water and one with bottled water. The one watered with the town water died, he said.
At another point he was filling a container with his hose to prepare some Miracle Gro for his garden, and when he got back to the container, the water was pink.
Bourque said that when the water lines were being changed by the previous town administration, he asked why the pipes on his road weren’t being changed, and was told it was because the town wasn’t changing the pipes on dead-end streets.
The aldermen decided to have the issue looked into, to see whether it was a problem with the pipes or something else that’s making the water bad. Water samples will be taken from the fire hydrant on the road where his house is located to be tested to see if the issue is silt or rust or something else.
Because he’s had to run his water for a long time to get clear water, Bourque’s water bills have been high for the past couple of months, he said.
Because of that, the town will change him a flat rate of $22.50 a month until the problem is fixed.
“Thank you,” Bourque said.