JULIETTE, Ga. — Monroe County commissioners are making the coal ash issue in Juliette their number one priority.
After commissioners learned of possible contamination in Juliette's drinking water, they brought several water tanks to the county as a temporary solution.
On Monday, dozens of people living in Juliette traveled to the state capitol asking legislators to take action.
In a press conference at the capitol, Dorothy Krakow said, "The legislators were not... they said, 'We want to see your test results, we want to see your test results.' Well, I gave them my test results."
Now, commissioners will do two water sample studies to provide further data to lawmakers.
"Show us more test results. I don't have thousands of dollars to throw out to prove to you my water's contaminated," said John Dupree Monday at the capitol.
In a Facebook post, commissioners explained to new water tests being conducted.
The first will test private wells to see if the heavy metals they're finding in water is naturally-occurring or confined to areas around the plant.
Duke University will also conduct a water test. They will test wells within a two-mile radius of the plant to determine the origin of the possible contamination.
In the meantime, commissioners plan to use all the influence they can to get state legislators to support the two coal ash storage bills in the general assembly.
Dupree told the audience during the press conference, "We need this cleaned up."
The county is paying for the water test to be done, and they will start collecting samples over the next few weeks.
Commissioners say they started drafting a plan to bring in county water lines to Juliette.
Right now, they say it would take nearly 3 years to complete the project once they started.
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