MILLVILLE AREA, Del. - Over the weekend, people who live in the Bethany Crest mobile home park in the Millville area were told not to drink their water due to the presence of a water sample that had contaminants.
The Delaware Division of Public Health says the water is right at the EPA health advisory level which is 70 parts per trillion. The water advisory is just limited to Bethany Crest, not the entire town of Millville in the Ocean View area.
DNREC has been doing an assessment of PFAs in Delaware's water to gauge what contamination in the state looks like. DPH says the sample they took from Bethany Crest was from the source water, not the finished drinking water after treatment, but the state still wants the community to be overly cautious.
Don Maranovich sees cars coming in and out of the Bethany Crest community everyday.
"We found out Saturday … There was a truck filled with gallons of water and he said they're having a problem with the water, don't drink it, you can still wash your dishes," said Maranovich.
"We reached out to the community, we got them some technical assistance, to review their current system and see what upgrades they might need to do to deal with the contamination that was found," said Jamie Mack, chief of health systems protection at DPH.
DPH says PFAs, also known as forever chemicals, come from a variety of sources and could cause health problems with long term exposure.
"Liver and kidney effects, some evidence it may contribute to increased cancer in a community, but that still needs some more study. There are other concerns, it could increase blood pressure especially for pregnant women and cause low weight in babies," said Mack.
Right next door to Bethany Crest is Hocker's Super Center. They are doing all they can to support the community by giving out free bottled waters.
"If you have four people in the house you get four gallons, if you have six, you get six," said Maranovich.
Senator Gerald Hocker, owner of the store and of Bethany Crest has been on top of the situation the minute he found out.
"I was quite shocked, because we done so much to improve this park since I bought it, it was high in nitrates, we put in a new well, and all new water infrastructure over the years," said Hocker.
He is doing all he can to find a solution with DPH, like finding another water system.
"Hopefully we will find one in stock and get it in here as soon as possible...as soon as we find a system to take care of this problem I will sign a contract and we will get it in," said Hocker.
DPH says it took additional samples which will take a week to come back. It will then plan out next steps and hope the issue will be resolved in a matter of days to a week. The state is also planning to release draft regulations that will require routine sampling of water systems in Delaware.