GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. - Some people in the Housatonic Village in Great Barrington are still battling the effects of brown water coming out of their faucets.

Trace Augcomfar now has clear water, but she showed us some she recently collected when it came out discolored.

“There’s no way I’m taking a bath in this I basically have to buy jugs of water and boil it and fill the bathtub up every time I want to take a bath,” Trace Augcomfar said.

Augcomfar says it could take anywhere from seven to 10 days for water to clear up when it's brown, but she says she still doesn't trust drinking it.

“My plants, my dogs will never drink this water I barely want to have it touch me,” Augcomfar said.

Augcomfar has lived in the town since 2020, fighting for better water. 

Andrew Berens also lives in Housatonic. He decided to use his property's well after dealing with the Housatonic Water Works Company’s water.

“I would like to be on the municipal water," Berens said. "I mean, we didn’t buy this house and decide to live here thinking we would have to manage a well. So my preference would be to be on the water. But I’m not going to connect until these problems are fixed."

The Housatonic Water Works Company says manganese levels are making the water discolored. They say this usually happens when the weather is warmer. And they say it's due to elevated manganese levels in the Long Pond water supply.

In a statement, the company's treasurer, Jim Mercer, said in part:

"We understand that discolored water is a significant concern for our customers. Rest assured, we are working diligently to resolve this issue and enhance the quality of our water supply."

The company is looking to replace the filtration system to filter out the manganese, but will need to increase rates for residents, who aren't happy paying more.

“At the end of the day we don’t want just a band-aid that may or may not work what we want is a solution to get the water fixed long term and for it not to be on the backs of village residents,” Berens said.

The Great Barrington selectboard chair says residents should report concerns to the board of health to help push for better water.

“When they get discolored water, they should be reporting to the Board of Health of Great Barrington who will then pass that on to the State Department and hopefully between the Department and Board of Health there will be some pressure on Housatonic Water Works to get this done,” Chair of the Great Barrington Selectboard Stephen Bannon said.