MUSKOGEE, Okla. -- Nancy Weisser said Muskogee's water problems have lasted for years and seem to be getting worse.

She tells 2 Works for You the water tastes like chlorine.

"If you're going to have company from out of state and they come in here and start to take a drink of water, they wonder what's going on here. They don't really want to drink it so I buy water for those people," she said.

Weisser said the water often smells like dead fish, a problem the city is looking to tackle.

"On the western side of town, some water we were seeing had a water age of 11 to 12 days within the system," public works director Greg Riley said.

Muskogee also violated the Safe Water Drinking Act multiple times over the last few years. They sent a warning this spring that some who drink too much chlorinated water for years may be at risk of cancer, or problems with their liver, kidneys, or central nervous system. That is, if they can get water.

In western Muskogee, homeowners said the water line breaks are constant, and crews are often running from one emergency break to the next.

"They're always working on the lines, always. At one point they were working on these lines and it caused something to break on the lines coming into my house and I was without water for about a week," Weisser said. On Monday the council approved 17 million dollars from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board to replace pipes throughout the city, which is expected to be done by the end of next year.

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