By Madison Hart
InkFreeNews

PIERCETON — Water accessibly problems persist after multiple mobile homes have allegedly been without water for several months at Merrywood Mobile Home Village, located at 3104 E. Wooster Road.

According to a resident who wishes to remain anonymous, their mobile home has been without water for at least four months. When the problem first started, the tenant described losing water pressure slowly. Eventually the kitchen entirely lost water and the bathroom was left with just a trickle.

The tenant has changed their filters, called Rabb Water for an inspection, called a local plumber, all of which was unsuccessful in fixing the problem. Local plumbers do not want to take on the job because the tenants are not the property owners of the community well.

Attempts the tenant made to reach the landlord were unsuccessful over a period of several months. According to the tenant, more than one family went to the office to talk about the issue. No action was taken to rectify the situation. Many times, tenants called the manager but it was “very rare” to reach her as she “doesn’t answer her phone” and is “never in her office.”

The lack of access to water has forced the tenant to find alternate locations to shower and do laundry. The tenant described bringing water into the mobile home in order to force the toilet to flush.

Recently, tenants were able to discuss their concerns with the manager, who said several people don’t have water pressure and promised to call someone to help. On Wednesday, Nov. 6, a WEED, Inc. truck came to the mobile home park, apparently for an inspection. The tenant was concerned that WEED addresses sewer needs and would not be able to help with lost water pressure.

InkFreeNews contacted WEED and a staff member stated that WEED is able to work on both the sewage and running water for a mobile home park, but they did not want to discuss the specific case.

Another tenant stated that they had been experiencing water problems at Merrywood for two years that increased over the last seven months. For two years, the tenant said they had no cold water, only hot. In the last seven months, issues with losing water pressure came up intermittently. This tenant said they knew of four mobile homes that have been experiencing similar problems.

“Pretty much the whole time, a lot of us have had issues. The pipes. You can’t get cold water. Or water won’t come out. If it does, it’s a stream, but you don’t have pressure. Many people have told them about it, but they’ve done nothing,” the second tenant said.

The tenant stated that the manager was hard to get ahold of. They described an instance of the office having an open sign, the maintenance person walking inside, but when the tenant reached the door close behind, it was locked and no one answered. The tenant described various problems with the manager’s responsiveness ever since moving in, frequently taking two to three weeks to respond, including in cases of burst pipes and flooding.

According to this tenant, the manager said the water pressure issues are “… probably above-ground pipes … and if it is, that’s (your) problem.” They said they’ve never come to check the pipes, including to see if they are above or below ground.

The tenant said the other residents they’ve spoken to also have trouble reaching the manager.

InkFreeNews called Merrywood for a comment on Wednesday, Nov. 6. An office staff member stated the manager was out of office, and said, “I have not heard anything on that. All of our rentals, the water’s been on. We haven’t had any issues.” When asked for her name, the staff member hung up. InkFreeNews attempted to call the office back; no one answered. InkFreeNews attempted to call on Nov. 7 and 8; no one answered.

The Merrywood Mobile Home Park operates as a public water system, under the oversight of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Drinking Water Branch. According to an email from IDEM, it has “not received any recent customer complaints about water quality from the Merrywood Mobile Home Park. However, following (the) inquiry to the Department of Health, a drinking water inspector looked into concerns shared by residents. Any water pressure issues appear to be isolated to an individual resident’s lot, which has undergone plumbing modifications by the trailer owner. All system lines at the mobile home park are operating normally.”

IDEM said it encourages residents to file a complaint with IDEM if there are water utility operation concerns. However, IDEM stated it “does not have regulatory oversight over plumbing on private property.”

Following up with the affected residents after the IDEM inspection, one resident said that maintenance was done that seemed to fix four of the affected homes, but their home still did not have water.

According to the landlord, the remaining problems with the tenant’s water were their own responsibility. The tenant attempted to contact plumbers, many who refused to work on a community well. Finally, a plumber agreed to come. Their inspection indicated that there was not an individual plumbing problem but a community well water system issue. They also noted the place on the ground outside where the landlord had paid for digging and pipe maintenance was saturated with water.