RANDOLPH — Randolph Village has many things; restaurants, a music hall, a bike shop — and long-standing water system issues.

Village residents Michelle and Mike Miller are on the town water system and regularly travel about 30 minutes to a natural spring to gather drinking water in 5-gallon jugs. They say they have ruined countless articles of clothing because of discolored water, and they often notice a chemical smell coming from their taps.

The Millers pay about $1,200 a year for water they don’t drink.

“I don’t even give the water to my animals because I don’t trust it,” Michelle, who has three cats, 12 chickens and two ducks, said in an interview last week.

The Millers live on the corner of Fairview Street and Beanville Road. They reported discolored water to the town four times between July 30 and Oct. 12, according to emails.

Incidents were far less frequent this summer than last summer, she said. The Millers most recently had brown water running from their taps on Oct. 19.

The Millers are among about 800 customers on the system, according to the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Drinking Water Branch. The water system covers about 1.5 square miles, including Randolph Village and some properties east of the village along Route 66.

Water problems have gotten noticeably worse in the past three to four years, said Miller, who moved to Randolph in 2016. However, Randolph Village residents have complained about the town water for decades.

This summer, the town completed work on a new reservoir and three new wells in an effort to address ongoing issues.

Village residents have often complained at Selectboard meetings about the water’s color and taste, the Valley News reported in 1996.

The discolored water that is common in town is because of manganese particles and pipe sediment that turn a “rusty color” after they are oxidized by chlorine, Water and Wastewater Superintendent Chris Chambers said in a Friday email.

These particles settle in “low spots and dead-end lines,” which have the most issues, as well as undersized lines, Chambers said.

Miller said her house is served by a dead-end line. When their water runs brown, she emails Chambers informing him of the issue, per the superintendent’s instructions. Miller will then run an outside tap until the water clears and email the water system the length that she ran the water so that they can credit the Millers’ account.

This solution usually provides a temporary fix, but it is only a matter of time until the water will run brown again.

Another frequent complaint is that the drinking water “smells like pool water,” Chambers said.

Despite these complaints, Chambers said the water is treated with chlorine, according to state requirements, and cannot be decreased.

Safety concerns

Randolph Village water system customers have received an elevated manganese level warning and updated testing report each quarter since 2015, when the state found a manganese concentration above regulatory limits.

Manganese is naturally occurring in groundwater and is an important nutrient but it can be harmful at elevated levels, according to the Vermont Department of Health. Manganese can harm the nervous system and it is especially dangerous for infants.

Elevated manganese levels go further back, but Vermont only began requiring regular testing of manganese at public water systems in 2015. For example, state testing data shows a concentration above the current regulatory limit in 1999.

The advisory document sent out to residents every three months warns them not to use the water in infant formula, food or drinking water and adds “to limit exposure, older children and adults may consider an alternate source of drinking water and cooking water.”

Randolph Village resident Jackie Ondy said she has not experienced discolored water, but she pays close attention to the quality of the village water and water system changes because she takes care of her granddaughter, who is a toddler.

“I want to make sure the water is safe for her,” Ondy said.

To ensure the water in her home is safe, Ondy said she has had it tested independently and found no problems.

System upgrades

In an effort to address water system issues, a new North Reservoir came online July 15 and three new wells came on Aug. 12, Chambers said. The system now has two operational reservoirs and eight operational wells in three areas.

The town allocated about $3 million to the project, which came in under budget, according to meeting minutes of an Oct. 10 Selectboard meeting. It was financed through a mix of grants and loans from the Northern Borders Regional Commission, the state of Vermont, the federal government and a $1.5 million bond approved by town residents.

After the new system was finished in August, the town “experienced some discolored water on streets that have never complained,” Chambers said. He attributed this issue to a change in the hydraulics of the system due to the height of the new reservoir.

After a brief period of elevated complaints, there were no issues for a few months, Chambers said.

More recent discoloration, like the Millers’ Oct. 12 issue, may have been due to an unrelated communications problem at the Pearl Street well in town, Chambers said.

The Pearl Street well is the oldest well in the water system and the source of the manganese issue.

Water system operators hope that the new wells and a system control update will allow the town to limit the usage of this well, Chambers said.

Pearl Street well problems

Town officials have tried to limit usage of the Pearl Street well in the past, with little success.

The town has been working to replace the Pearl Street well since 2016, according to the 2018 report. In 2017, state inspectors found leaking in the North Reservoir, prompting efforts to replace it.

Four other wells are located at Pinnacle Street, the three new wells and the new North Reservoir are located on the Ellis Lot just North of the Village.

When the Pinnacle Street well system was built between 1999 and 2001, one of the goals was to address elevated manganese levels and water hardness in the Pearl Street well, which was already exhibiting issues, according to a 2018 Preliminary Engineering Report prepared for the town.

System operators and engineers at the time hoped that the new system could almost entirely replace the Pearl Street system. However, system issues prevented this. As of 2018, the Pearl Street well accounted for nearly 40% of the town’s daily water.

“The Pearl Street well will likely always contain manganese,” Chambers said. He added the well is run at lower than permitted levels, but the other wells “show signs of struggling during dry weather conditions, including two of the three new wells.”

The three new wells are additions to the system, rather than replacements, but the hope is that the new infrastructure will reduce the Pearl Street well to a backup resource, rather than daily operation.

Residents experiencing discolored water or system issues should contact Chambers via email at STP01@randolphvt.org with the property address in the subject line.

Clare Shanahan can be reached at cshanahan@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.

 CORRECTION: Randolph Village residents Michelle and Mike Miller have three cats, 12 chickens and two ducks. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the number of animals.