After four days with no water, residents of a North Suffolk community are able to turn on their faucets again but are still steaming about why their service was turned off.

More than two dozen homes in Hobson, a small community off Crittenden Road, are connected to a private well owned by a nonprofit organization.

Mary Hill, the secretary of the organization and also a resident of the community, said the problem was caused by a new neighbor digging in his yard and trying to make his own connection to the system after being told that was not possible. It messed up the water pressure, and parts in the pump house had to be replaced as a result, she said.

But other residents of the community believe Hill turned off the water on purpose to spite the new neighbors, because she did not want them to move in.

Hill said she called the police multiple times last week about the neighbors digging in the yard. The permit for the well system does not allow more than 25 homes to be connected to it, so she was trying to prevent any unauthorized connections, she said.

But police said it was a civil matter, and they could not stop people from digging in their own yards, Hill said. So she tried other tactics, contacting Miss Utility and other organizations.

But on Friday, Hill returned home to discover there was no water pressure. She went to the pump house and found water escaping from the valves on the meter. The pressure in the system had exceeded the standard, and the system shut itself down, she said.

She believes the problem was directly caused by the neighbors digging to try to connect themselves to the system, she said.

But other Hobson residents say this kind of thing happens frequently.

“This has been happening for six years,” said Gloria Samarah, a Hobson resident. “You wake up and there’s no water, and there’s always an excuse.”

Randy Townsend dug his own well for his home, because he did not want to continue to deal with the problems, he said.

“It’s just so dysfunctional,” he said. “I just want to see this community get along. You have older people, you have children in this community. They need water.”

Townsend ran a hose from his well to an elderly neighbor’s house during the recent outage, which ended Tuesday morning.

But the officers of the organization said they did not cut the water off on purpose and noted their homes, as well, did not have water service.

“They’re acting like we did it on purpose, and it’s not no such thing,” said Milton Hill, president of the organization.

“Milton, as well as myself — we live in this community,” Mary Hill said. “We were just as much anxious about trying to get this problem resolved, and we were actively trying to prevent it from happening.”

Hill noted her 95-year-old mother lives with her.

“I’m a caregiver, and I would never compromise her care,” she said.

Mary Hill said she did what she could to mitigate the impact to her neighbors. She secured rooms at a North Suffolk hotel for families with children, but she was not sure if anybody had stayed there. She called the city for assistance, and they brought 25 cases of bottled water on Monday.

After many attempts to get a plumber to fix the problem, it finally got temporarily repaired Tuesday morning. A more permanent fix is in the works, Hill said.

Hill said the homes that are connected to the system are assessed a flat rate of $250 a year for the service, but some do not pay. They know their water won’t be shut off for nonpayment, because the water would have to be shut off to others who do pay, she said.

“They manipulate the system every time,” she said. Meanwhile, there are bills to pay to keep the system running — an electric bill to run the pump and, now, a repair bill.

Samarah is among those who said she does not pay the assessment. She is looking forward to the day when she can get city water.

“I’d rather pay the city every month than have to deal with well water that you don’t get whenever somebody decides you shouldn’t have it,” she said. “I just want out. They can keep their well.”

She will soon get her wish. The Department of Public Utilities currently is completing the design of water lines to serve Macedonia Avenue and parts of Hudgins Circle and Sawmill Point Road.

The project is in response to a previous petition process completed by the residents. The city will be ready to advertise for construction bids in four to six weeks, city spokeswoman Diana Klink said.

Each home will have to pay $6,620 to connect to the city system, along with any improvements needed on their own property. There is an environmental incentive reimbursement, however, so the net cost is only $3,370. A five-year payment plan is available, Klink added, and residents eligible for tax relief would have this cost reduced by the same percentage.

In the meantime, Hobson residents hope they don’t have to fill buckets to flush their toilets again.

“This is truly mad,” Samarah said. “This is like Third World.”