INEZ-- Like all parents Phelisha and Shane Burchett want to give their children every advantage possible. They bought a house close to family, but just months after moving in they started noticing changes in their two children.

"Our little girl is constantly saying that she is itchy," said Phelisha Burchett. Her husband, Shane, joined in, saying "We are constantly buying itch creme because she's saying she's itching."

And they think the county's tap water is to blame. Shane Burchett explained, "It's nasty. It tastes salty. If you brush your teeth. It's just nasty water."

The couple spend hundreds every month buying bottled water, afraid of drinking tap water. Phelisha Burchett says she is thinking of using bottled water for more than just drinking and cooking. She explained, "I hate brushing their teeth in that water. I hate washing their toothbrush out in water. Our little boy wants water before he goes to bed. When he gets home he wants water."

Even the family dog drinks bottled water. Shane Burchett said, "She's no different than us. I don't want to kill my dog."

Water board member John Hensley says the water is safe. Proudly, he said "I drink my water out of the faucet."

For years, Martin County wasn't meeting state requirements with its water. Hensley explained,"From 2013 to 2017, that we wasn't in compliance, but since 2017 we have been in compliance with everything that we need to be in."

However, they do have a problem with leaks and broken pipes. Hensley compaired it to whack-a-mole. "It's like you push one down here and three pop up over here, and that's kind of the way it is with us. It's an old system and we're trying our best to get it repaired."

Researchers with the University of Kentucky say that in Martin County the pipes are so bad that because of leaks, only 30% of water makes it from the plant to people's taps. The goal is for 85% of water to make it from the water plant to faucets.

Just as the leaks let water out, they also let other things in, meaning that water tested at the plant isn't the same water that comes out of the tap.

Shane Burchett says he's experienced that first hand, "It was white, and then other day, like last week, it was red, like orangish red, like sulphur water or something."

In 2000 there was a coal ash spill in the area, but the Centers For Disease Control determined that didn't have long term effects on Martin County's water. 

Their problems now stem from deferred maintenance, which falls back to money. 

"A lot of it is, you know they've never had a capital improvements system. You know you start at one end of the county of your line and you come and you start repairing and you replace the old line and service lines and you keep continuing until you've gone through your whole system and then you start again," said Hensley.

Money has long been a problem in this small county. 

"Now we find ourselves at a time when our cancer is approximately 24 percent higher than the rest of the country and I think we need to find out what's going on, what's causing it, and to address it," said Dr. Lon Lafferty of Lafferty Medical Clunic. 

Lafferty says he doesn't know if it's because of water, but says he stopped drinking it about 2 decades ago. As one of the only doctors in the area, it's often his job to give people the bad news. Grimly, he said, "It has to be done. it's best done, I think from somebody with a caring heart, who understands they themselves might someday be a patient."

Lafferty says the government needs to do something about the problem. With frustration, he said "We have contributed so mightily to this country and to this state. There are coal severance money that for years now has helped build Rupp Arena and other things throughout the state and to ask for some help fixing this problem, I don't think is too much to ask. We deserve a little bit of return on the hard work that our citizens have put forth over the past decades. These people have gone underneath these mountains, miles deep, risking life and limb, to light the rest of this country, and asking for the basic service of clean water is not too much to ask."

Martin County has been getting money to make repairs, like a recent 1.2 million dollar grant, but Hensley says it's far from enough. "I met with contractors today, to replace one thousand meters. The bid that came in was 1.6 million dollars, but we only got a grant for $1.2 [million]."

He says there is no way to know how many miles of pipes in the county need to be replaced. Because of that, Hensley says there is no way to know how much it will cost. When asked, Hensley answered, "There's no- the figures on this are astronomical to replace the whole system. We've got another $3.4 million grant coming, and that's going to repair and replace our intake at the river."

The slow moving repairs are frustrating for residents. "There's no question that our elected leaders have failed us. Over the past three to four decades, our county has received a tremendous windfall of tax dollars, coal severance dollars, and if you drive down through Inez and I would ask that you do that today, you'll see some tremendously nice, beautiful structures. We have three court houses, and one the new government building is top of the line, and so we've spent our money on things that don't necessarily help the citizens," said Lafferty. 

A few years ago, county officials decided to build a new building, rather than renovate the old courthouse.

Even Hensley says he was confused by the decision. "I don't know how we're going to pay for it, but again, I don't have any- I'm a citizen in Martin County, and I didn't build a new courthouse. We were told it wasn't going to cost us anything at all, but that's when coal severance money was coming in and now we're not getting any money, so they're having to scrap the payments on that courthouse."

In Martin County, the only money the water district gets, other than grants, is from water bills. Just in the past week, they announced they would increase rates by up to $11 a month to try and make improvements. 

However, in a county where many live below the poverty rate, that is a challenge in itself. "Our money flow in this county keeps going down, and if everything keeps raising, how you going to pay it," Hensley questioned.

But with pipes breaking on daily basis, and already a million dollars in debt, they say that's the only thing that will keep the water on. 

The Burchetts say their hands are tied. "I mean, we're pretty well stuck here." Shane Burchett continued, "We've put a lot of money in this house, and we're not going to get it back because nobody is going to buy a house that's in here."