St. Joseph County looking for solutions to drinking water problems

We told you last month about unsafe drinking water in Granger and Gilmer Park in St. Joseph County.

A group tasked with finding solutions is looking at a number of possibilities.

"We're looking at a whole range of perhaps 30 different alternatives and it will vary depending on how severe the water contamination problem is in any given area," says St. Joseph County Environmental Health Director, Marc Nelson.

Some of those alternatives include things like sewer service, water service, and upgrading septic systems.

For now, folks can install water filtration systems.

"It's important to have one good, safe, trusted water source in your house," says Culligan Water Specialist, Kurt Sells.

Sells says that can be done with a reverse osmosis system. Experts can hook the filtration system up to your kitchen faucet. Sells says it can remove up to 87 percent of nitrates in drinking water.

"You use it in your coffee pot. You use it when you're making the kids Kool-Aid, you use it when you're washing off your vegetables and your fruit. You've got perfect water that you're using for that all the time," says Sells.

The health department says 20 percent of homes in Gilmer Park and 10 percent of Granger homes exceed the federal standard of nitrates in drinking water. That's ten parts per million.

A long term solution could take years, but now they've voted on a plan to move forward.

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St. Joseph County looking for solutions to drinking water problems