Millsboro-area neighbors don't trust Mountaire to clean their water

Mountaire Farms is trying to step up its efforts to help its Millsboro-area neighbors deal with the groundwater pollution that's been linked to the company's local processing plant.

On Monday, the company began offering some of those neighbors free equipment that promises to remove nitrates from their water before it enters their homes.

But several local residents say they don't trust the company that may have polluted their wells to protect them from those same contaminants.

"They need to come up with a different solution," said Bob Phillips, who lives about 2 miles from the plant. "This is not going to cut it."

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Phillips' home is one of about 80 in the area that gets its drinking water from wells now identified as at risk of contamination from high levels of nitrates and other substances released by Mountaire's poultry plant.

The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control cited the company last month after finding workers there bypassed crucial steps in the factory's wastewater treatment process, sprayed highly contaminated effluent on hundreds of acres of farm fields and failed to report crucial data about its activities.

State regulators are currently investigating how long the company got away with those actions, the extent of the pollution and the full impact on the surrounding community.

DNREC denied a Freedom of Information Act request for data and communication shared by the agency and Mountaire in recent months, citing its ongoing investigation. Agency officials declined to say whether that investigation is criminal in nature.

Mountaire spokesman Sean McKeon on Tuesday said well tests paid for by the company show that 25 of 71 homes examined so far – about 35 percent – have water with nitrate levels above the federal drinking water standard of 10 milligrams per liter.

Separate testing conducted by DNREC and state public health officials indicates the rate may be higher. Agency spokesman Michael Globetti said 21 of the 34 wells tested by the state – or 62 percent – were found to contain nitrates above the federal drinking water standard.

Each of the homes with high nitrate levels is now being offered nitrate removal systems paid for entirely by Mountaire, McKeon said.

Those systems are considered to be a step up from the bottled drinking water the company has been providing to 80 homes since Dec. 1. That's because they also will help protect residents from being exposed to nitrates while washing and bathing with the contaminated water.

"I want to stress that all of these measures are precautionary," McKeon said. "Our first effort was to provide an immediate solution, which was the bottled water. Now that we've determined who does and does not have a problem, we're offering to provide a more long-term solution to those that need it."

Letters left at the 25 homes on Monday by Sharp Water, a Maryland-based Culligan distributor hired by Mountaire, provided little detail about the exact equipment being offered. The letter does explain that the nitrate removal systems would need to be cleaned with salts about every three to four days.

According to the letter, DNREC requires each homeowner to sign an attached waiver form allowing those salts to be released into private septic tanks.

The only problem is no waiver form was attached.

"They can't even get that right," said Phillips, whose well on Justice Lane was found to have nearly 22 milligrams of nitrates per liter  "And now we're supposed to trust that their equipment is going to keep us safe and they're going to maintain it properly? No way."

McKeon initially was unaware of the missing waiver form. He later said Mountaire is working with Sharp Water to correct the problem. 

At least six other area residents offered a nitrate removal system by Mountaire say they also plan to reject the offer – waiver form or not.

"Unless they're going to pay for us to have deeper wells, I'm going to keep accepting the bottled water," said Joan Balback, whose well on Jersey Road was found to have 11 milligrams of nitrates per liter.

Many areas of Sussex County, particularly north of Indian River, have been known to have historically high levels of nitrates in groundwater from decades of agricultural fertilizer application. Nitrate contamination is a problem in the shallower aquifer, which is the main source of drinking water for private wells.

Judith Denver, a hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, said seeing nitrate levels even twice the drinking water standard is not out of the norm for the area.

"Those levels aren't above what we have seen," she said, adding that groundwater moves very slowly – about one foot a day – and it could take decades for the recent pollution to make its way through the groundwater system toward the nearby Indian River.

Lisa McCabe, whose well water was found to have 22.5 milligrams per liter, said she's holding out for a filtering system that removes all contaminants and not just nitrates.

"They only tested for nitrates but we still don't know what else is in our water," she said.

Even those whose wells were cleared by Mountaire's testing say they don't trust the company's attempts to address the problem.

“I didn’t even want to drink the bottled water they brought," said Martha Wise, a 79-year-old resident of Herbert Lane. "I still have my own water that I’ve been drinking.”

Many of those residents have been critical of Mountaire's response. Some note their initial shipment of bottled water came with a note from Sharp Water that never explained why it was being provided. Others say their calls for a community meeting with the company have gone ignored. 

"We have yet to hear from a single person with Mountaire," Phillips said. "To me, that's underhanded. It's just not right."

McKeon said he planned to personally knock on several residents' doors Tuesday afternoon.

"We wanted to be sure we had some testing done and facts in our hands before we reach out to the residents," he said. "Now we're encouraging them to talk to us about what they are experiencing."

Contact reporter Scott Goss at (302) 324-2281, sgoss@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @ScottGossDel. Contact reporter Maddy Lauria at (302) 345-0608, mlauria@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @MaddyinMilford.