Former Roanoke County resident D.J. Cooper, now federal inmate No. 10893-084, is serving time for sewage-related violations that eventually were halted at his Hardy Road Trailer Park in Bedford County.

But the substandard drinking water system had a greater direct effect on the dozens of families living there. Naturally occurring contaminants in the well water piped to homes, while not unhealthful, make the water unpleasant to use.

"I don't even give my cats the water," said Mary Roberts, who, like many other park residents, buys bottled drinking water for consumption.

This tap water problem, which is at least 13 years old, continues with no clear sign that authorities have found a solution. If, as the saying goes, justice delayed is justice denied, then residents of this dilapidated collection of trailers are victims twice over: first of a recalcitrant landlord, and second of legal bureaucracy that may have a long arm but whose hands seem tied.

Law enforcement officials have brought a variety of criminal and administrative actions geared to make Cooper install a drinking water filter. In all cases, the government eventually prevailed legally. But so far, no filtration.

The Virginia Department of Health has estimated the cost of installing the filter in line with existing chlorination equipment at $60,000 to $75,000. That's a small sum compared with the $4.8 million in net worth Cooper had at the end of 2003, according to court papers.

"It's a shame," said Bedford County Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Krantz, who prosecuted Cooper in criminal court over drinking water issues a decade ago. He won in court but failed to force Cooper to put in the filter. "The law can punish Mr. Cooper or anyone in a like position to Mr. Cooper for their criminal wrongdoing or even their civil wrongdoing, but it can't necessarily make them make moral choices and treat people right."

Further dimming the prospect for relief, Cooper went to prison last fall. The 72-year-old is serving 27 months at the Butner, N.C., Federal Correctional Complex for violations of the Clean Water Act. He paid the federal government a $270,000 fine, many times what it would cost to fix the water system, and is scheduled to be released in October 2007, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

Cooper no longer cruises the gravel lanes in a large white pickup, passing the 50 to 75 occupied trailers from which his company receives a monthly lot rent of $240. The cost of the water is included in the rent.

Some park residents have been told Cooper left his son, Al, along with Cooper's wife, Ruth, and a maintenance man in charge of the trailer park. Al Cooper, a home builder, said he has no official role in the park's operation, but believes Ruth Cooper intends to hire a contractor to install the water filter. Results should be evident in four or five months, he said.

"She plans to comply 100 percent with whatever is required of her," Al Cooper said.

Ruth Cooper declined to discuss a timetable for filter installation work. She told a reporter to speak with her lawyer, then declined to identify the lawyer.

The maintenance man said he believed the newspaper could get answers to its questions elsewhere and hung up the phone.

For the record, some trailer park residents aren't as turned off by the water as others.

"We do cook with it and we do drink it," resident Judy Wood said. She dismissed the problem as just the naturally occurring minerals found in any water that originates underground.

A water test performed on a sample collected in April showed iron and manganese concentrations about five times the federal guideline.

Iron and manganese, which are found in many wells in this region, are not in and of themselves health threats, but are classified as contaminants because they detract from a water supply's taste, color and smell, and stain clothing, fixtures and appliances.

A waterworks owner can install a sand filter, as Cooper has been asked to do, or apply chemicals to clear up the problem. Or, an owner might dig a new well, hoping to find a better aquifer.

Most park residents say they aren't taking any chances by consuming the brew that they say runs unevenly from their taps.

Some report an occasional interruption of water service on Monday mornings, which is followed by resumption of service a half an hour or so later with water with a decidedly brown cast. The brown tone soon goes away, after which the water resumes being just ordinarily bad, they say.

There are approved plans for the filtration system on file with the state health department's Danville-based regional Office of Drinking Water. Bedford County authorities said they have not issued a building permit for any such project, however.

As Cooper serves his sentence, the drinking water is not clearing up on its own. For The Roanoke Times, Environmental Directions Inc., a Roanoke laboratory, tested a sample drawn from Julia and Ed Stafford's tap Jan. 24. Iron showed up at levels 15 times the federal guideline, and manganese showed up at twice the federal guideline.

Because of a large number of complaints about the water from trailer park residents, the state health department exercised its discretion to enforce the federal guideline in a series of actions against Cooper in the late 1990s that continued for several years. In addition to having been convicted criminally for exceeding water-quality limits, Cooper stands charged, convicted and sentenced for related violations of the Virginia Administrative Code. State Health Commissioner Robert Stroube in 2002 signed an administrative order that Cooper install the filter.

Would it do any good for residents to complain now?

"We, of course, will listen to them," said Robert Payne, director of regulatory compliance for the state Office of Drinking Water, a part of the health department.

But, as Payne knows, a resident's complaint is a common trigger that causes an administrative agency to open a file on somebody it regulates. The health department opened a file on Cooper more than a decade ago and has already imposed every sanction under the law.

One possible explanation for why more has not been done to Cooper since then is economic. Many low- to moderate-income people have depended on Cooper for a place to live affordably. Authorities must weigh the need to hold Cooper accountable through further legal action against the risk that Cooper, as a private business owner, might choose to close his park and evict everyone living there, Krantz said.

The caution appeared well-founded. While Cooper was awaiting trial, authorities pressed for a decision on whether he would repair or stop using a faulty sewage lagoon. A short time later, Cooper evicted most of the tenants whose trailers were connected to the lagoon rather than pay for repairs.

The agency now weighing a next step is the office of Virginia's attorney general. When health commissioner Stroube's order failed to bring Cooper around, Payne's office turned the matter over to it.

"We are looking at the most effective way to get the water into compliance right now," said Emily Lucier with the attorney general's office.

A different person for the same agency said almost the same thing in November 2004 as the sewage-related prosecution of Cooper began.

The attorney general's office hasn't made public anything it has done thus far.

Which does not sit well with resident Wanda Pack. "It [the water] has a funny aftertaste. We try not to use it," said Pack, who has three children.

The Staffords, elderly and on Social Security, say they're not looking for lavishness, just someplace to call home. They can see the out-of-service sewage lagoon from their kitchen window. But the bigger problem for them is that tap water is so unpleasant, they can't bear to smell it and cringe when they run out of bottled water and must drink some. It's been that way the whole six years they've lived there.

"We're still putting up with it," Julia Stafford said. "There's not much you can do."