MARION, Ohio (WSYX) \u2014 More than 70 complaints have been filed with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency regarding ongoing taste and odor issues in Marion\u2019s drinking water.<\/p>\n
Some residents say the problems have lasted for weeks.<\/p>\n
William Lemley, who lives in Marion with his family, says the water coming from his faucet appears cloudy and smells unpleasant.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow look how milky it is. That’s horrible. Shouldn’t be like that,\u201d Lemley said. \u201cI mean, it tastes bad, it smells bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lemley says the issue has disrupted daily life inside his home.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can’t drink it. You don’t want to drink this water,\u201d he said. \u201cOn top of my water bill, I got to buy water to be able to drink here.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says he has spent more than $100 on bottled water during the ongoing issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m paying for water. Why should I have to go buy water to drink?\u201d Lemley said.<\/p>\n
As for why this is happening, in a statement, the Ohio EPA said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no sign of contamination in the city’s groundwater or surface water sources. However, geosmin, a naturally occurring compound found in drinking water sources that can affect taste and odor, has been detected in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked about a timeline for resolution and whether the water ever failed to meet standards, the agency responded:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ohio EPA has been working with the Aqua Ohio public water system since January, after hearing concerns from residents about the taste and smell of their drinking water. Our agency has received more than 70 complaints. This has been an ongoing issue since December 2025, with the majority of complaints coming in over the last month. The water in Marion has always continued to meet state and federal drinking water standards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aqua Ohio tells us it has not detected geosmin at its water plant since Monday. Now, they are flushing hydrants to minimize the odor and taste and says there could be pockets of impacted water still out there.<\/p>\n
I also asked whether customers would be reimbursed for purchasing bottled water. Aqua Ohio said there is currently no reimbursement program in place.<\/p>\n
Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n
BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n
The company says complaints have gone down in recent days, and officials are hopeful the worst of the issue is behind them, but they will continue monitoring the situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MARION, Ohio (WSYX) \u2014 More than 70 complaints have been filed with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency regarding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-482995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}