ROCKDALE, Texas (AP) — Sometimes when David Pruett turns on the taps, the water runs a dark caramel.

"I don't wash the dishes when it comes out coffee-colored on me," said Pruett, 27. "There's been plenty of times, I've been in the shower, washing my hair or something, and it suddenly looks like I'm bathing in Coke. I don't drink the water here. I can't. My stomach gets upset. My system can't handle what's in the water here."

The Austin American-Statesman reports state regulators and officials in Rockdale, about an hour's drive northeast of Austin in Milam County, say the water, which resident...