Worms And Tadpoles Pour Out Of Faucets

It’s a tap water nightmare: In central Turkey, worms and tadpoles are coming out of the faucet.

Residents say pipes supplying water to the province of Aksaray “were installed two decades ago and with the pipes wearing out, tadpoles and worms were sighted when they turned on their taps. Villagers complaining of the long bureaucratic process for the replacement of the water supply turned to installing filters to no avail,” the Daily Sabah reported.

Residents have begun appealing to authorities for help. İsmail Tekeli, a resident, explained that the circumstances are not so rare. "I installed a filter on the pipe at home but I still find worms, tadpoles and insects even after I clean up the filter a couple of times every week," he said.

Similar problems have struck in the U.S. at times.

Oklahoma experienced a worm problem two years ago. Residents began noticing small red organisms known as “blood worms” appearing in their drinking water. The Verge reported at the time: “Schools are closed, convenience stores can't serve fountain sodas, and residents have been instructed not to cook or brush their teeth using tap water. Bathing, fortunately, is still deemed acceptable by local health authorities.”

Those “blood worms” proved to be nearly indestructible. "The chlorine won't kill them, the bleach won't kill them," Cody Gibby, the town's water commissioner, told a local TV network, per The Verge. "You can take the worms out of the filter system and put them in a straight cup of bleach and leave them in there for about four hours, and they still won't die."

Eventually authorities greenlighted the tap water again. “Officials had said the worms weren't a health threat to people but acknowledged that it wasn't appealing,” the Associated Press reported.

What happened?

And in July, Texas residents faced off with worms, as well. Residents in Old River-Winfree, a town of about 1,400 roughly 25 miles east of Houston, are served by a decades-old J&S Water Company facility, KHOU reported. Customers "began finding brown and red worms in their tap water," the report said.

"The private company responsible blames the invasion on a power outage and broken equipment," USA Today reported. The company has pointed to a broken chlorinator.

For similar stories, visit Water Online’s Drinking Water Contaminant Removal Solutions Center.