This article originally provided by The Lexington Heral-Leader

December 17,  2007

What's in the water at Prenter?

After rash of illnessess, that’s the question in the community

Lawrence Keeney
county news editor

PRENTER - The quality of water service for some 300 people is under question this week as residents are raising concerns about a staggering number of illnesses reported in this small community and question whether the water is to blame.

Residents have a laundry list of ailments and some deaths to report and speculate that it has something to do with the quality of a small community water service called the Prenter Water Company.

Any officials with the company could neither be identified nor reached for comment.

According to residents, the small company is a publicly run service and financed by at least one coal company.

The water was installed in Prenter in 1982 due to funds received through a federal grant. Two residents tell The Boone Standard that until recently, residents had been assessed a small, $3 monthly fee for maintenance.

This financed the small, apparently one-man operation.

Last summer, thieves apparently broke into the community pump house and stole breaker boxes used to operate the system.

A local coal company that was financing the upkeep of the service then billed the water service for the cost of the parts to repair it. Since then, according to those who live in the area, little or no upkeep has been done on the water system.

The illnesses run the gambit from thyroid problems to children who have been forced to have their teeth removed. The list goes on, community members said.

Prenter resident Maria Lambert told The Boone Standard there were "at least a dozen people who have died of cancer over the past few years, not to mention the instances of kidney failure and brain tumors."

Lambert said the families associated it with the water just recently.

"We have a couple of families with small children whose teeth have begun to rot out," she said.

"We are talking children in the first and second grades who shouldn't have to worry about this sort of thing.

"The dentists told their parents their teeth went bad because of 'bad water.'"

She believes that cases of children with attention deficit disorder can be traced to environmental conditions, as well as the most recent instance of a resident who was diagnosed in the last few weeks with Legionnaire's disease.

"We've always known there have been water problems," she said, "but it took till just recently before we put two and two together to think that it may well be because of the water."

Boone County Emergency Management Director Greg Lay said he became alarmed after residents listed people in the relatively small community who are either sick or have already died.

"This is really disturbing," he said. "Whether it is bad water or what, we have to take measures to find out what is going on really quick."

He said representatives from the federal Abandoned Mine Land agency were in Prenter on Wednesday, interviewing residents and taking water samples.

If the samples show that the water problems can be traced to the older, closed down mines then the federal government will pay to repair the water system or possibly connect the community the nearby water systems operated by the Boone County Public Service District.

Lay said the Boone County Health Department will be in Prenter next week interviewing residents and doing a formal health survey.

"They hope the survey will help them figure out when so many people in such a small area are so sick at the same time," Lay said.

Boone County Administrator Jim Gore said the county was committed to finding the cause of the problem and doing whatever they could to help solve it.

"We are going to work with the AML when they issue their final report and see what the commission can do to get these people some clean safe water," Gore said.

The commission has opened the Racine Community Center as a site where residents can come and fill up water containers for drinking, cooking and bathing.

"We realize that for some folks, driving to Racine to get water would be a problem, and the county is trying to figure out a way to get it the water a little closer," Gore said. "It's going to take a few days to work it out."

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