McGregor Reserve residents fed up with poor water quality, say what the city is doing just isn’t enough

Reporter: Gail Levy
Published: Updated:
Mary Stavley shows the residue from the dirty water coming through her faucets. (WINK News)

Homes with dirty, unusable water and no signs of improvement. People in McGregor Reserve are afraid to shower or even cook in the conditions and it’s been this way for months.

Mary Stavley’s happy place is her beautiful home in McGregor Reserve.

“I have friends here, I love the neighborhood, I love my area I don’t want to move,” she said, but she’s considering it due to the recent conditions in the neighborhood.

“When I took the water out of my bathtub yesterday, I had to wipe it out and this is what I wiped out of my bathtub,” Stavley said.

Mary Stavley’s bathtub filled with unclean water. (Provided to WINK News)

A brown stain on a paper towel shows iron coming out of every faucet of her home.

She gets her water from the City of Fort Myers. It’s so bad, and she’s so mad, she got an independent water inspector to test it.

She was told the test proved the water is not safe to drink.

“It does make me so angry. Every time I pour my tub and it’s bad water, I’m running around the house going look at my water, look at my water, they want me to bathe in this water!? I can’t wash my hair in this water,” Stavley said.

She and her neighbors continue to complain to the city but are getting nowhere. So, we went to City Councilman Fred Burson who represents the neighborhood.

“We have a responsibility to provide clean water,” he said.

The city installed filters hoping they’d help clean up the water, but Stalvey said that’s not cutting it, so she’s going to install a $,4800 whole house filtration system and bill the city.

“If we can’t do it on our own and residents are having to spend money on their own to do it, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for them to ask to be reimbursed,” Burson said.

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