For A Third Time, Worms Found In Illinois Town Drinking Water

Residents living in Villa Grove, IL, are facing an unfortunate problem as blood worms have been found in their drinking water for a third time.

Villa Grove residents had worms in their water last October and earlier this summer in July, according to Champaign’s News-Gazette. Christiana Cornett, a resident of the worm stricken town, found a blood worm in her 11-month-old son's bath water earlier this month.

"He was just playing and splashing with his little ducks and all of the sudden, I see something floating around and I just get him out," Cornett explained to WANDTV. "You're paying for this water that they're supplying. It made me so mad last night. I was almost in tears because of it and I was so glad he did not swallow it.”

Ron Hunt, city council member and former mayor, said that Villa Grove is working on the problem but that it will take some time to get it solved, WANDTV reported.

Hunt added that residents will have to wait until a new $4 million water plant is built sometime in 2018.

"We keep working on it," Hunt told WANDTV. "The EPA, we do everything they tell us and they're working with us because they know we're going to build a new plant. We are working right now to see if we can [outsource water] from Champaign or Charleston."

Amy Stoudenmire, also a resident of Villa Grove, found over a dozen worms in her water last October.

"I think at that time, it was a screen that wasn't working right at the plant," Stoudenmire told WANDTV, "We thought, you know, it's an old system. What we need now, at this point, is a new water source."

In October, the Illinois EPA told WANDTV that they flushed the city's water. The EPA said that they were not able to find any worms, but that if more were located then they would address the problem further.

"It's like a Steven King movie," says Stoudenmire. "It's horrible. It's a nightmare. The worms themselves are larvae, so it's not supposed to be harmful, but if they can get into our water system and they are visible to the eye, what else can get in?"

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