Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

Neighborhood Under Boil Water Order For Fifth Time This Year

Hood County homeowners complain of poor water service

About 1,400 homeowners near Granbury are being warned to boil their water – for the fifth time in just the last year.

Monarch, the private water company in the Oak Trail Shores neighborhood, blamed the “mechanical failure of a critical filter” and said it is working to fix the problem.

But customers said this is just the latest incident and that their water service has been unreliable for years.

Linda Rue, who has lived in the subdivision for ten years, said her taps often go dry without warning.

“Not even a drop,” she said. "And then it'll come back on. And then by evening it'll be back off. And then in the middle of the night it'll be on. Morning it's off. It's sporadic. You don't know when it's going to happen."

And then there’s the issue of water quality.

Several homeowners said they don’t drink the water or even cook with it.

"The water has gotten really dirty,” said Rue’s neighbor Ray Davis. “When you run bathwater, it looks like somebody urinated in the water."

Rue said it's like living in a third-world country.

"My little grandson was over here last weekend and he tasted it and he spit it right back out,” she said.

The company said its water meets or exceeds all federal standards.

"We take all customer water quality concerns seriously, and each customer service call is logged and tracked,” said Terry Benton, Monarch’s director of operations. “If a water quality issue is observed in the water supply, we take corrective action."

Monarch said it could take three weeks to fix the filter.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which regulates water quality, said water quality in Oak Trail Shores is in compliance with state standards.

The agency also said an investigation is underway into complaints about low water pressure in the neighborhood -- but not water quality.

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