Bethlehem town board addresses smelly water concerns

BETHLEHEM, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Some Bethlehem residents are still dealing with poorly smelling and tasting water after months of struggles. The town is planning to address the issue again in the town board meeting Wednesday night, where they’re expected to share the next steps for this issue.

“For 25 years I’ve lived here, and for 25 years we have had the best drinking water with no complaints,” said Kris Carpenter, a Bethlehem resident.

Until late October when residents like Kris Carpenter, Jessica Dillon and Sheree Wright began to notice a change.

“It was an earthy smell initially and it started smelling like decay. And you can observe the odor when you turn on the tap, wash your clothing, or took a shower,” said Jessica Dillon, a Bethlehem resident.

NEWS10’s Vanessa Blasi got to smell the water inside Carpenter’s home and confirmed it was very earthy. The Albany County Department of Health said that despite the smell, the water is still safe to drink. Some residents said they could not get away from the smell.

“It was everywhere in our house and even on our bodies we could smell it. If you dried your hair for instance, or put on an article of clothing that had been through the dryer as well,” said Dillon.

“There is nothing worse than not being able to turn your tap water on and drink it, or cook with it,” said Carpenter.

However, Bethlehem Town Supervisor David VanLuven said they’re doing everything they can.

“The reason this is taking so long is not because our water team isn’t working hard enough. They’re working very hard, its because it’s the kind of problem you can’t fix right away,” said VanLuven.

Paul Penman with the town’s Department of Public Works told NEWS10 Monday that they added two chemicals to get rid of the smell. He said the smell was originally caused from a by-product they used to kill algae found in the reservoir.

Unfortunately, it is now a waiting game for residents. Penman said the only way to get rid of the smell is for all of the old water to be flushed out with the new odorless water that they’ve been producing successfully for 10 days now at the plant.

One resident, Sheree Wright said she wasn’t notified about the water issues until it was too late. She began noticing smells in mid-November, but none of her neighbors were experiencing this.

“I was thinking it was my hot water tank because my hot water was really bad, so I invested in a new hot water tank at the cost of about $1,400,” said Wright. “Then the town notified us that there was an issue with the water quality.”

Wright said that cost was equal to an entire month of her social security check. Now, she and others are looking for the town to step in.

“I’m hoping that maybe the town will give us some credit on our water bill or something because now they’re asking us to let our water run for 15 minutes,” said Wright.

Some also believe the town should be providing water.

“If they could have a water distribution center. Maybe a truck parked in the town hall parking lot, maybe different points in the community,” said Carpenter.

However, VanLuven said that since the water is safe to drink, that is not something they would do. Instead, they will be addressing concerns and questions at the town board meeting Wednesday night at 6 p.m. VanLuven said there will be an international water expert there to share knowledge and perspective on how Bethlehem’s water issue compares to some other places. For more information, visit the town’s website.

NEWS10’s Reporter, James De La Fuente, was at the meeting on Wednesday evening where the Bethlehem Town Board addressed the water concerns to the public, including the latest on when the town predicts the smell and taste in the water will be resolved.

“We just need to keep doing what we are doing. It’s just gonna take time,” stated Bethlehem Town Supervisor, David Vanluven.

Those comments were met swiftly by some concerned residents. “Your inaction leads me to conclude that you just don’t care about the health and welfare of residents and business owners alike. You should all resign immediately,” exclaimed one resident at the meeting.  

But a spokesperson for Albany County said, “This treatment is an effective measure to address taste and odor concerns.”

As residents called for resignations of the board members, others called for an available water source that was acceptable, to them. “This is the third time I have asked for water distribution to blind and deaf ears. You don’t care about your residents in this community. And you must, you need to address these problems and give us water to drink. I’m too old to be lugging water into my home, to drink, to do, to cook with. It’s pathetic,” exclaimed another Bethlehem resident concerned about her water supply.

Bethlehem residents listened on as Town Commissioner of Public Works, Paul Penman says the process now is to flush the town’s water pipes. Currently he says they have 400 fire hydrants, and they only need to get to a fraction of those to complete the flushing. “The problem we’ve had is it’s very heavily dependent on weather. We have about 80 hydrants left in the system flushing. We’re hoping to complete the 80 hydrants within the week,” explained Penman.

Residents also said they need more in the way of a text message warning or some kind of notification system, especially in this digital era.  “Where you text a number of people, if not all residents, and you say to answer, on a scale of 1 to 5, how grotesque, how terrible is your water? And that, I mean, that will save so much logistical complication and money to go and actively test all of these different sites of fire hydrants around the community.”

Penman says his team will develop a permanent solution that will help keep Bethlehem water safe, going forward for years to come.