PITTSBURGH — A Homewood youth football league told Channel 11 News Monday that it has been forced to buy bottled water for the players because the water at the city park where they practice is dirty.
“It looks like toilet water,” mother Roslyn Smith said. “We’ve called the city. Nothing’s been done.”
Smith said she and other moms have been paying for bottled water for weeks.%
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Mubarik Ismaeli, the president of the Homewood Community Sports League, which has more than 300 children in it, said that they’re going through a case of water every five minutes during football practices at Willie Stargell Field.
“There were days we were low on water, so we had to manage how we gave water to the kids,” he said.
Ismaeli said he met with public works, but he hasn’t heard anything since about a solution.
A spokesperson for the city told Channel 11 News it would be Tuesday before they could respond with more details about the issue. On Tuesday, a Channel 11 News crew captured Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority crews flushing water lines in the park. Officials said they believe the brown water was caused by a rash of breaks in the lines in the area.
The football league’s coach said until the water is clear, they’ll continue to buy bottled water.
“We don’t know what it is. Is it toxic? No one is giving us any answers about anything,” he said.
The youth league officials said they have also been getting donations of water from other businesses in Homewood.