Lomita residents create petition to get city's attention on discolored water

LOMITA, Calif. (KABC) -- A number of Lomita residents said their taps are spewing dirty, smelly, undrinkable water despite a new $13 million project aimed to cut city water costs.

Lomita is the latest Southern California city to have problems with its water. Last year, Gardena had black, murky water flowing out of its taps and earlier this week Watts residents' water was shades of beige, brown and yellow.

It's gotten so bad in Lomita that more than 100 residents packed the City Council meeting last week. One man pulled out a bag of sediment he found in his hot water heater.

Breann and Christopher Rumph pulled out their water filter and found a green, mossy looking film on the filter after less than a month of it being in use.

"The City Council members just seem to brush it off and don't want to deal with it or don't want to recognize that there is a problem" Breann Rumph said.

Residents are asking the city to do something before people get sick. They also said their water bills haven't gone done, but up.

Eyewitness News spoke with the city manager who said the water is safe to drink, but if people continue to have problems they should contact the city so a crew can test the water. He added that several fire hydrants have been flushed out to clear the system, but residents said that has made their water worse.

They also started a petition on Change.org to try to get the issue addressed and so far have more than 160 signatures.