

IRONWOOD, MI– Some people in Ironwood, Michigan are concerned with what’s coming out of their faucets, and now, they’re calling on the city to make a change.

“I packed my bags after two years of going through this crap and I moved to Wisconsin,” said James Johnson.

Residents in Ironwood, MI have had enough with the water quality in their town.

“I’ve never been able to drink the water or give it to my dogs or use it for cooking in the past two years I’d say,” said Maxwell Kasper.

City officials said when the city conducts iron and manganese water main flushing, or when there is a big fire, [the water] will stay brown like this for a few days.

“My water is discolored more often than it is clear,” said Savanna Campbell.

But many residents said the water is not only brown during those times but sporadically throughout the month.

Some even said the water tastes like bleach and chlorine.

“What’s that resulted in is me buying bottled water and filtering my water, which is costly and not eco-friendly,” said Campbell.

Ironwood city officials said it’s not a health issue.

“it’s [an] aesthetic issue,” said Bob Tervonen, Ironwood utilities manager.

And they’ll give credits when there is a problem.

“We ask them to take a water meter reading to run the cold water. Once they have clear water, take another water meter reading, and based on those two readings I can give a credit for water a sewer,” said Tervonen.

“I got a credit for ten cents. Should have been more than that for all the problems I went through,” said Johnson.

But water quality isn’t the only problem.

The money residents are being charged for the subpar water is a lot.

“That deposit is currently $550 just to get water turned on,” said Steve Frank.

The city has talked about a potential solution that could cost millions of dollars, but they’re not sure if they’ll move forward with it.

“The best solution would be a filtration plant, that topic’s been brought up,” said Tervonen.

Until there’s a solution, residents have one hope:

“Someone, an independent outside party to come in and assess the situation, and see if indeed our water is of poor quality,” said Campbell.

“If there is a neighborhood dirty we want to try to find out why,” said Tervonen.

City officials said they constantly check the quality of the water.

The last test was completed in March 2019, and the results came back negative for pesticides and toxins.

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IRONWOOD, MI — Some people in Ironwood, Michigan are concerned with what’s coming out of their faucets, and now, they’re calling on the city to make a change.

Photos sent to CBS 3 Duluth by the organizer of a community activist group apparently show what the water looked like in their town last week.

City officials claim the discoloring, apparently caused by iron and magnesium, happens when they flush the water mains about twice a year.

But some people living in Ironwood still aren’t happy, and they’ve started an online petition asking the city to address the issue.

We’ll hear from both sides tonight on the CBS 3 Duluth News at 10.