Rash of Illnesses Prompts Questions

by Lawrence Keeney, excerpted from Dec. 17, 2007, Boone Standard

	Problems with the “public” water supply in Prenter raise many questions, not the least of which is why the water has such a negative effect on resident’s home plumbing systems. Above, some interesting growths inside a toilet tank (really interesting in color), and below, black sludge being drawn off from the bottom of a new water heater.

The quality of water service for some 300 people is under question as Prenter 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.

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 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 said, "At least a dozen people have died of cancer over the past few years, not to mention the instances of kidney failure and brain tumors. We have a couple of families with small children whose teeth have begun to rot out. 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’."

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.

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. It could also pay to possibly connect the community to the nearby public 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 (why) so many people in such a small area are so sick at the same time," Lay said.