Months after Ian, many private water wells at homes in east Manatee are still contaminated

Lori McBride does not own any horses, but so much horse manure washed onto her Myakka City property during Hurricane Ian that she still cannot safely drink the water at her home.

Hurricane Ian battered Florida's gulf coast three months ago, but like McBride, many residents in east Manatee County are still not sure if they have safe drinking water in time for the new year after their wells were contaminated by floodwaters during the Category 4 storm.

"Most of everybody got back to the normal strides of life pretty quickly, but there is still plenty of people with damage to their homes still waiting for insurance and contractors," Myakka City resident Lori McBride told the Herald-Tribune. "As far as I know my well is still contaminated. There is plenty of people that are still going through this. We are just drinking bottled water now."

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Shannon Mullen, another east Manatee County resident who lives along the Myakka River, said many community members assumed their private drinking water supplies were safe to consume.

But testing performed by the Florida Department of Health in Manatee County showed they were wrong.

"Our wells did not go underwater," Mullen said. "Lots of people around us assumed that because their well did not go underwater it would not be contaminated, but lo and behold they were. If you want my honest opinion, I wonder if it's been contaminated prior to the storm."

Authorities advise caution with drinking water wells

The eye of the Category 4 storm never touched Manatee County, but passed so close that residents who live near Myakka City and the surrounding community endured ceaseless winds and pelting rain for hours on end, were flooded and without power for days, and in some cases continue to have limited access to safe drinking water today.

Authorities and a flock of community volunteers banded together quickly to distribute drinking water, food, and an amalgam of supplies that residents of the agricultural community needed immediately after the storm.

It was at that time in early October that Manatee County and local Department of Health-Manatee officials encouraged residents who own private drinking water wells to voluntarily test their water for possible contamination. They cited concern that floodwaters could carry coliform bacteria, such as E. coli, other bacteria, or viruses such as hepatitis.

The results were staggering, and test samples immediately found that drinking water from hundreds of private water wells in the community is unsatisfactory and unsafe to drink without further testing, and entirely contaminated at dozens more.

Manatee County authorities quickly issued an advisory to east Manatee residents with drinking water wells about the findings, re-established a bottled water distribution site in the community, and distributed bleach produced by a local manufacturer free of charge to help residents purify their wells.

"The bacteria found in many samples can cause gastrointestinal illness, such as diarrhea and vomiting if the water is consumed," Environmental Manager Tom Larkin told the Herald-Tribune in an email in November. "It could also lead to infections of open cuts if used for bathing and showering. The only way to verify that the water is safe is to have it tested."

But the onus to test water wells lies on homeowners, DOH-Manatee Spokesperson Christopher Tittle said.

"It's each private well owner's responsibility to determine when/how the water in his/her well needs to be tested for safety," Tittle said. "If private well owners don't clean their private wells regularly, it's hard to tell whether the contamination is from the storm or from months and years of not cleaning or not cleaning properly."

Tittle said that although the DOH has collected hundreds of samples from homes in east Manatee County, the effort is voluntary and it is impossible to know if conditions have improved at residences that have not returned for new sampling.

The department has processed 929 samples taken from 777 wells since October. Those samples were tested, and health officials found that 199 private wells contained unsatisfactory drinking water.

But sampling is not comprehensive, and owners could have continued testing efforts privately, so it is difficult to tell exactly how many residents were, or still are, affected. Initially, the department received about 120 samples per day, but only received 1-5 samples per day by the end of November.

"These are privately owned wells, each one serving a private residence," he said. "As such, DOH-Manatee does not assume routine oversight of their proper care and maintenance. If these were publicly owned wells, then your public health agency would assume routine oversight because the wells would be serving entire communities and not just one residence."

Residents apprehensive to drink their well water

Myakka City resident Shannon Mullen's property abuts the Myakka River, and floodwaters rose so high in her neighborhood that her family had to use a john boat to reach her home on River Road for days after the storm.

"The water was chest high down at my in-laws," she said. "There was a current running. We were dodging gators. We were working against daylight so you can see with sticks in front of you, and you are pulling a john boat with your children in it. It was no fun."

But floodwaters never rose high enough to inundate her drinking water well, so she was surprised to find out that her drinking water was contaminated. Although many well owners have been fortunate and their drinking water has been cleared of contamination, others like Mullen have not been as lucky.

Mullen's in-law's, Cindy and Bill Knight, took the lead on well testing for the family following the county's advice to east county residents.

"We never had our water tested over the years," Cindy Knight said. "It was convenient because they were out at the Myakka Community Center, but then our test came up failing."

The family has followed DOH instructions, and has treated their wells with county-distributed chlorine with mixed results. Conditions at Knight's home have improved more than at Mullen's, but neither family trusts the water enough to drink it.

With no other options Mullen, though, had to make the difficult decision for any livestock owner and decided to let her animals drink the contaminated well water.

"My livestock is drinking the water. It's a choice we had to make, so they are getting the water from the well," Mullen said. "So far, so good. What kind of repercussions will come from that? I don't know yet."

McBride, on the other hand, said that there was so much flash flooding on her property that it easily overtook her well head, which sits less than two feet above the ground. Water at her home was deemed contaminated, and after several rounds of sampling McBride said she is ready to give up.

"When we are talking flash flooding, it was something to behold," McBride said. "It looked like a raging river out there. Everything north of me was flowing my way, and there is plenty of animals up there. I had horse manure in my yard. I don't even have horses."

"I wasn't about to hire somebody, quite honestly I couldn't afford it, so after three failed tests the county sent somebody out to test it and as far as I know it came back contaminated," she said. "I got a phone call from them. I basically said I'm over it, I'm not worried about it, so they kind of let it go."

All three residents said there could also be issues with the way owners collected samples that could be contributing to confusion about the situation. They say that unlike most commercial water wells, there is no mechanism to allow direct testing at private wells and that it is possible aging plumbing could be the culprit, among other factors.

"I live in a 40-year-old home that I just purchased two years ago," McBride said. "It's very possible my pipes have never been cleaned out. We use the water, we shower in it, we flush toilets with it, I wash dishes with it. It doesn't really seem any different than what it was before."

"But I never had it tested before the hurricane," she said. "It may just be the way my water was before, and I have no way of knowing."