by Chris Conley, originally posted on April 11, 2016

WAUPUN, Wis (WSAU-MetroSource) Prison officials are testing water in two state penitentiaries after being bombarded with complaints about bad taste and a foul smell.

Tests have shown lead and contamination in the water supply at the prisons at Waupun and Fox Lake. A judge ordered the state back in 2014 to lower lead levels at Fox Lake. The prison failed water quality tests as far back 2009.

A group of inmates at Fox Lake told the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism that prison water is routinely yellowish with dark sediment in it. The Department of Corrections says one well that supplies water to Fox Lake is no longer being used, and they will soon begin a new water treatment program to limit corrosion in the jail’s pipes.