Rehoboth Bay Mobile Home Park residents react after e.coli found in water

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. – “Even the dog and the cat are drinking bottled water at this point,” said resident Bill Johnston.

That may sound odd to most people, but for  Johnston and many other residents living at the Rehoboth Bay Mobile Home Park, that’s become their reality after learning that the water that they depend on every single day tested positive for E.coli.

“We got some bottled water and we have a water filter that we drink water out of but other than that we just didn’t know what to do,” said Johnston.

Health officials say they were performing a monthly bacterial test on the community’s water system when they found the shocking results. Prompting them and the owners of the mobile home park to send out boil water advisories to each and every resident.

“There were two wells that were connected to one outlet and One of the samples was from that outlet and was positive for E. coli so that just suggests that one or both wells are contaminated with E. coli,” said program administrator for the office of drinking water Keith Mensch.

“I got it and shared it with my wife and she’s like oh that’s not good because how long had it been that way,” said Johnston.

Some residents say they weren’t surprised to hear the latest news.

“We live very close to farms, chicken farms, and dairy farms you know all that waste gets into the water and you’re bound to have run off we have very low lying areas,” said resident Nancy Fitch.

Now, officials say they’re working around the clock to try and identify the reason behind the contamination  and to get residents drinking clean water again. They add that they’ll be working to chlorinate both of the community’s wells and distribution system sometime this week, and will let residents know as soon as possible when the water is safe to drink again.