PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Homeowners in a Palm Beach County 55-and-up community said they may have been drinking, bathing, and feeding their pets with tainted water for a few days before they were warned of the problem.
WATCH BELOW: 'I think we should have been told sooner,' Jennifer Kirtley tells Investigative Reporter Dave Bohman
People in the Maralago Cay subdivision said it is not the discovery of E. coli in the well water that bothers them, but the fear that they may have been exposed to the bacteria that makes people sick for up to five days.
Homeowners received an alert from Maralago Cay on Monday afternoon. A voicemail informed residents that during the most recent round of testing that occurred on Thursday, April 8, a sample from well 1 failed to meet water quality standards.
As a result, Maralago Cay issued a boil water notice. Later that day, the community emailed homeowners, stating that their operator notified them a water sample collected from one of the wells returned a positive result for E. coli.
"I think we should have been told sooner," Jennifer Kirtley said.
Kirtley fears the test five days before the boil water notice was for E. coli.
"Five days drinking, cooking with it, feeding it to your pets, it's just, it's a bit of an ick factor there too," Kirtley said.
I looked up Florida environmental law and found that if there is an acute risk to human health, the water provider should initiate consultation with the Department of Environmental Protection as soon as possible, but in no case later than 24 hours.
I wanted to know if the tests on Thursday were for E. coli and, if so, why neighbors were not told within 24 hours. I visited Maralago Cay’s property management office for answers and was asked to call the corporate office that manages the complex. So far, I have not received a comment.
In the meantime, people in the community no longer have to boil their water and no one is known to be sick as a result. However, Kirtley worries about a few people who live nearby.
"I have older neighbors who might be compromised in some way, and I think it's important for them to know what's in the water," Kirtley said.
The homes in Maralago Cay will soon hook up to a municipal water system, which will reduce the chances of something like this happening again.
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