Dark days in Crystal City, Texas: Less than a week after Mayor Ricardo Lopez was arrested by his own police department at a city council meeting, residents are reporting that black water is running out of their taps. Not dark or murky water—black water.

Crystal City denizens began sharing photos of the latest sign of their personal apocalypse on social media Wednesday evening, according to local news network KSAT. According to a notice published by the city the following morning, the water ran dark because renovations on the municipal water tank caused sediment to leak into distribution lines. Residents are advised to boil their water before drinking it.

We began following Crystal City, a town of about 7,500 near the Mexican border, after all but one of its top public officials were arrested by the FBI. Mostly, they were accused of taking bribes from a local gambling ringleader in exchange for allowing his illicit business to operate and snuffing out his competition. Then, on Tuesday, the mayor was arrested again after allegedly scuffling with a local woman at a city council meeting.

Nora Flores Guerrero, a resident, may have been feeling grateful this week. She told KSAT that her water only “stank”—it didn’t flow as dark as the heart of beelzebub himself, like her neighbors’.

Here’s one more image of the black water for good measure.

If you ask me, whoever’s running the show down in Crystal City is getting a little heavy-handed with their end-of-days symbolism, but who am I to judge.


Screenshot via KSAT. Contact the author at andy@gawker.com.