MILTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — Mark Allen is one of hundreds of Milton residents who say they are struggling with water problems. He says he has been living with the problem on and off for nine years.

“I pay for water I can’t drink. I don’t even use it for my pets,” Allen said.

Allen said discolored water is nothing new in the Milton area. Sometimes it affects everyone, sometimes just a few households.

“I feel like I live in Flint, Michigan,” he said. “I’m not far from the water plant and we have brand new pipes up here. So why am I still getting brown water?”

Dakota Miller, a member of the city’s utility commission, said samples taken showed there was a problem with manganese.

Miller said they have contacted their engineering group and they will be in Milton on Thursday to help.

“We have four water storage tanks with a capacity of about 100,000 gallons,” Miller said. “They will come in and either dive or place some kind of device on the bottom to check the sediment and determine if our tanks need to be cleaned.”

Shane Evans, who has lived in Milton his entire life, said the water problems have worsened over the past eight years.

“Personally, I wouldn’t drink the water,” Evans said.

Evans said this problem will not change overnight, but he is confident a solution can be found, especially with the construction of a new hotel in the area.

“They’re building a motel down here on the golf course, and how are they going to get the extra water there? We can’t even keep our own water clean,” Evans said.

The Milton Utilities Commission said it would flush fire hydrants more frequently and regularly take water samples from residents who had called to report problems.

They don’t have a timeframe for when this problem might be fixed, but said there is a lot of old infrastructure in the area that would cost millions to repair.