A frustrated public faced off against the Ferriday Town Council Tuesday night over a continued lack of safe drinking water.

Ferriday Mayor Odeal Montgomery reported that Ferriday’s water plant continues to fall just short of a necessary goal to have the boil-water notice lifted. The town has been under the notice since Aug. 20. The plant, which completely shut down Aug. 23, began running again two days later but residents must still boil their water for it to be safe.

&uot;The water plant must go three days with a turbidity level of under .5 and it must also register chlorine residual in so many parts per million,&uot; said board attorney John Sturgeon.

The Ferriday water treatment plant tests its water every hour of the day and night for this turbidity – or water clarity – level, Sturgeon said. &uot;We will have most everything done that anybody knows what to do by the end of next week,&uot; he said.

Since Sept. 9, only one reading out of 24 per day comes back with a turbidity level above .5, he said. What seems to be causing that one reading to jump, he said, is clogging of a manganese pump in the plant.

He said water plant staff is hopeful that new equipment expected to arrive next Tuesday will resolve some of those problems.

Ferriday resident Mitch Ashmore asked the council for a report on the contents of Ferriday’s water. &uot;Natchez residents received a report on exactly what was in their water. Aren’t we entitled to a report on what our water contains?&uot; Ashmore said.

Ferriday resident Deede Dore’ said she wanted a public meeting on the water problems in Ferriday. &uot;You set the date and let me know and I’ll be there,&uot; Montgomery said.

In other business, Councilwoman Gail Pryor offered a motion for council members in the next term to be paid for attendance at special meetings and to have their salary raised from $200 a meeting to $300 a meeting.

The motion, which died for lack of a second, was booed by members of the audience.

&uot;I don’t know why it didn’t pass,&uot; Pryor said after the meeting, but she said she may try to offer the motion again at a later date.