Anaheim : 10 Households Warned Not to Drink the Water

Ten households in the city have been warned not to drink tap water because a well that serves them contains excessive amounts of an industrial cleaning solvent that causes cancer in laboratory animals, a county health official said Wednesday.

Bob Merryman, director of environmental health, said the well showed 9.7 parts per billion of the chemical trichloroethylene (TCE). The state requires action if the level is above 5 parts per billion, Merryman said.

“In high concentrations, TCE can cause liver and kidney damage, and it causes cancer in test animals, but it’s not carcinogenic to humans,” Merryman said. He added that “very low concentrations” of the chemical were found in the 193-foot deep well in three tests, the first in September and the last on Friday.

The well is in the Taormina Water System, which serves the 10 households, all located in the area of Cherry Tree Lane and Palma Avenue just south of the interchange of the Riverside and Orange freeways.

Merryman said that it was the first time TCE has shown up in the Orange County water supply and that investigators will attempt to find how it entered the system.

He said the 10 households were advised to obtain an emergency connection to the city’s water system until TCE levels fall below 5 parts per billion.

Merryman said the chemical could have polluted the well after being spilled on nearby ground. He also said it could have seeped in from a leaking underground tank or an above-ground 55-gallon drum of the type commonly used to store hazardous wastes before they are taken to landfills.

The county Health Care Agency and the Orange County Water District in September began sampling water from 88 wells used by water systems serving 200 or fewer households.

Merryman said 22 of the local wells had been tested so far, with only Taormina’s found to contain organic chemical contamination above the state “action level.”