So what would you do if you learned your drinking water was contaminated with deadly bacteria?

People on Hitchcock Road in Jones County learned that more than 10 years ago, and according to folk who live there, they've been battling to get pure water since.

Louise Halcomb and Mary Waller live on Hitchcock Road. They said they've received several letters from the Jones County Health Department warning them of the bad water.

In one letter, health officials wrote that tests revealed their well water was contaminated with coliform bacteria and probably was unsafe for human consumption.

Halcomb said the health department wrote in another letter that feces and human blood were found in the well water. They said the contamination forced Hitchcock Road people to alter their lives.

"For the water I cook in, I buy my cooking water, my drinking water," Halcomb said. "But when I do my wash of clothes or mopping the floor, I put bleach in (water from the well)."

Halcomb said she uses the well water to take baths. But she pours some chlorine in it before getting in the tub.

Hitchock Road runs into Jones County from adjoining Baldwin County. Recently, Jones and Baldwin officials reached an agreement for Baldwin County to run water lines up Hitchcock Road.

But it'll cost the residents to get the service.

"It's $1,250 for the fee, plus we got to pay another $60 for the meter to get connected and then they told us last week our water bill would be another $50 a month," Halcomb said.

More than two years ago, officials dropped off some water line pipes in Mary Waller's yard. If the residents get water service, those pipes would be used to get to their homes.

Because it's taken so long, Waller wonders if officials really care about them.

"We've just been going backwards and forward, backwards and forward," Waller said. "They don't seem to me concerned at all with this. They make a promise and break a promise. They haven't done enough."

Jones County Administrator Michael Underwood said at least 10 people must sign up for the water service or the agreement will be void.

Underwood said the residents have until Oct. 1 to get the 10 customers.