ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 19, 1996 TAG: 9609190101
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS
Drinking water with a rotten-egg odor is assaulting noses of residents in a small section of Vinton.
The source of the odor has escaped detection, and so far has defied efforts to get rid of it. Now, the dozen or so affected residents have appealed to Vinton Town Council for help.
"We have a problem," Edgar Smith told members of council this week. "It's not only inconvenient, but it may be a health problem."
Only a few houses in the Bowman Addition section of Vinton have the problem. Smith lives on Gunn Avenue, but said a neighbor behind him does not have the foul-smelling water.
Mayor Charles Hill promised the residents that town officials would look into getting a chemical testing lab to look into the complaint.
Smith said some of the residents have taken water samples, but to no avail. After a few hours - even in a closed container - the water loses the odor.
Most of the residents have had pipes in their houses flushed with bleach and installed filters.
Smith said he believes the trouble will be traced to the town-owned well that supplies the area or to the pipes serving the neighborhood. Some of those pipes, he said, are as much as 70 years old and may have small leaks.
-CHARLES STEBBINS
Smith said Vinton's director of public works, Cecil Stacy, has investigated several of the houses, but could not spot the source of trouble.
"We need to get chemical tests," Mayor Hill said.
LENGTH: Short : 36 linesby CNB