Who's In Charge Of The Water In Madison County, Indiana?

Local Officials Fumble As Residents Raise Concerns About The Look Of Their Water

Does any of this water from Lapel, Indiana look safe to drink? Photos courtesy of Brianna Davis

This story starts with Brianna Davis, who recently contacted me about discolored water issues in her town of Lapel, Indiana. It’s a small town with a little more than 2,000 residents, less than an hour from Indianapolis.

Bri is a young mom with two kids, who has lived in Madison County for five years, dealing with water that looks scary and undrinkable (see photos above). She says her water is often a fluorescent yellow hue, and she’s been collecting data on local Superfund and brownfield sites, images of the water, and more to try to understand what’s going on.

One Mother’s Fight for Answers

Like any concerned parent, Bri has contacted city officials, EPA, and her state environmental agency, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM). She says the response has been confusing, and the problem persists.

City and county officials say the water is safe to drink, while IDEM and EPA representatives have told her it’s not advisable or safe to drink discolored water.

“I’m young.” she shared in a phone interview last week. “I hate when people don’t take me seriously. They act like nothing is wrong and act like I’m crazy.”

Her 70-pound pit bull mix died with an inflamed and oversized liver, along with elevated PFAS levels in his blood.

It might be easy to dismiss one person or household but online chatter in Facebook groups about the town and surrounding areas are also full of pictures from concerned citizens.

A Community Water Crisis Hidden in Plain Sight

We took a look at the 2021 Town of Lapel Comprehensive Plan and found this comment from a resident.

The entire water system needs repaired and revamped in the entire town of Lapel. The community residents need to feel safe about the water they are drinking and using for food preparation, as well as for cleaning their bodies.

Last week, at a Lapel Town Council Meeting, several residents shared their concerns as well.

Residents Speak Up at Town Council Meeting

Stephanie read an email she says she sent to the council, about concerns she’s had with the water for about five years.

“The water concerns in the town of Lapel are growing increasingly worse with people posting concerns about the color of their water,” she said.

She describes extreme discoloration in numerous local households.

“If one of you came home today and this was the color of your water, you would be gravely concerned for your own health and safety as it relates to this water,” she said.

Stephanie noted that when she washed her hands at the building where the meeting took place that night, even that water was yellow.

“Our town’s water concern must be put at the very top of the list of priorities above any other thing that you could possibly consider putting on a priority list,” she said. “Right now, nothing else should matter besides the health and safety of our local citizens.”

She shared that not everyone in town can afford a whole house reverse osmosis system, like the one she installed when she first started noticing the discoloration.

“To say that it is due to the flushing of the fire hydrants is not no longer acceptable,” she told the council. “The town was awarded a huge grant of money to fix this water concern and to be the solution. Obviously, something went sideways, and this is not the result that the leadership or town’s people expected or deserved. But this is not the fault of the residents. This falls back on the leadership. No one else in town was responsible for receiving of the grant or the disbursement of the money or the managing of the contract or what took place or did not. Besides the leaders of Lapel, the community counted on each one of you up at the front.”

I want to reiterate her point: the community is counting on its officials. When a water crisis hits, that’s what matters.

“The burden for the discoloration and concern for the Lapel water falls upon you as leaders,” she said. “What I want to know, as do many others in this town want to know right now, is what are you as a leader of this town doing to get to the bottom of why the water is like this and what is being done to fix it? Simply giving no answers and no resolution and communicating nothing is not acceptable. It's not acceptable behavior as a leader and it's not acceptable to the people. The local community deserves communication from the front of the room.”

She also mentioned that if there is action being done in the background that the leaders of the community should share that information too at the public meetings and in whatever means of communication used to get information to everyone.

Stephanie ended her remarks by saying that she is speaking out because of her concern for the community and her love for it.

“Doing nothing because we don't know is not an option,” she said. “It's no longer acceptable to let days and weeks and months pass by while community residents experience these water conditions you see week after week.”

Mike Helderbrand spoke next and brought a jug of yellow water that he said had just filled from his faucet at home.

He said simply, “don’t look too good to me.”

I agree, Mike. I agree!

The Runaround: When Reporting Problems Lead Nowhere

A council member responded to these concerns by saying, “If you have an issue, you have to call town hall and report the issue so we can come out and check it right away.”

They talk about how many complaints on water they are receiving and testing on a weekly average. Someone responds sounding a bit confused, but eventually says, “four yesterday, none today.”

The council member goes on to say, “If there is an issue that’s isolated to a street, talking about it on Facebook does no good to help us pinpoint the problem. We hire outside engineers to assist us with the water. We have an outside service that comes in and works with our water to make sure things are done correctly, and that we're following all procedures. All of our testing follows the state standards.”

But another woman comments that this process has not been fruitful, and then when people came out to test her water, they didn’t want to test her hose which had brown water coming out of it.

“We come to these meetings, you tell us to call us, when we do that, it’s not really an answer,” she said. “Maybe it’s time to say, ‘we don’t have one.’”

Funny, because on the agenda are quotes for a new well and to replace pumps in other wells. That indicates to me that the town knows that water issues exist. I’m just struggling to understand who’s in charge, and why the people in this town are getting the runaround.

Another mom took to the podium to discuss that her sons had to take a bath in the dirty, discolored water. She raised concerns that the water has ruined clothes that she has tried to launder in it. And she also asked about the schools and how they are monitoring the water.

All good points and questions. And I want to point out that these are the people who were able to attend the meeting. It can be tricky for many residents to get to a meeting if you have children, work a night job, have physical restrictions, or other conflicts.

A County Problem? Anderson Faces Similar Water Woes

The people of Lapel are not alone. In nearby, Anderson residents have reported brown, smelly water coming from their faucets and have similar concerns with their leadership.

In May, a newsletter from the town’s mayor claimed that the tap water remained, “safe for human consumption during flushing operations,” despite any discoloration. He emphasized that since taking office in 2016, $25 million has been invested in major improvements to ensure that the drinking water meets all safety standards.

The newsletter also discussed plans to invest $130 million during the next three years in “necessary” water improvements, some stemming from aging, nearly century-old infrastructure.

But the plan also includes a water rate increase to be phased in the coming five years to cover the cost of bond payments and increased water expenses.

Final Thoughts

What’s happening in Madison County represents a troubling pattern. Communities grappling with visibly contaminated water, while local officials offer conflicting information and residents feel dismissed and unheard.

In Lapel, yellow water flows from taps while city officials claim it's safe to drink, even as state and federal agencies advise against consuming discolored water.

Meanwhile, Anderson is planning $130 million in water infrastructure improvements while residents endure brown, foul-smelling water and rate increases.

These aren't isolated incidents. They are symptoms of aging infrastructure, inadequate oversight, and a disconnect between those in power and the people they serve. We have to account for older contamination sites that may now be causing problems as well. Many pollutants have a latency period of 20 years or more.

The residents of these communities deserve more than bureaucratic deflection; they deserve clean water, honest answers, and leaders who prioritize public health. When mothers don’t feel safe giving their children a bath, something is fundamentally broken—and it's not just the pipes.

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Join the conversation below. Have you had discolored water issues where you live? What would you do if this water was coming out of your sink?