ALICE, Texas — Alice residents are raising concerns about water quality even after the city replaced water lines on the south side of town.
I found several residents voicing those concerns on social media while reporting Monday on a $1 million grant the city of Alice received to maintain its three water towers.
One resident wrote on Facebook that despite the new water lines, the water on the south side still is not safe to drink.
"I live on the south side of town. They replaced all of our water lines, and our water is still not good to drink. It has a light brown color to it. I do not use it to cook or drink," the resident wrote.
Alice City Manager Michael Esparza said the city invested heavily in that part of town.
"So what we, we did replace a lot of, a lot of water and sewer, a lot of water lines on the south side with this. We had a $6.9 million project. And so, some of those were old lines, and that's why we focused on that area to do, it was a flood mitigation that also replaced, we were gonna replace the streets, we're gonna replace the infrastructure underneath. So there's new lines out there," Esparza said.
However, Esparza said the city cannot control the pipes that run from the meter into a resident's home, many of which are old galvanized pipes that could be causing the discoloration.
"What we can't control [are] our lines from the meter into somebody's house. A lot of old galvanized pipes still there. And so, you know, you may have, if there's one person in the middle of the street that has some off-color water, but everybody else, the water's, good, you know, we'll go so far as to pull a meter and test the water there and show, show the customers," Esparza said.
Not all residents share the same frustrations. Alice resident Israel Garcia said the city has generally been responsive to water issues in his experience.
"Sometimes we get discoloration in the water. We don't know what's going on. Sometimes we have water pressure issues, but the city's pretty good about taking care of that," Garcia said.
The repairs funded by the $1 million grant are expected to help address some of the problems residents have experienced. The city says it will continue replacing pipes as problems are identified.
Residents concerned about their water quality are asked to contact the Alice Public Works Department.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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