WINNEBAGO COUNTY (WREX) -
Tests turn up positive for gasoline-like material in Winnebago County drinking water. Health leaders trace the trouble to two private wells. A mother of four who lives on Soper Avenue in Rockford says she and her husband thought something was wrong last week. They were giving their one-year-old child a bath and say the water smelled funny. "It smells like a mechanic shop. It smell's like machinery. It smells like oil. It's very prominent," says Nicole Clark.
Turns out Clark isn't alone. One of her neighbors noticed the same thing. "A resident called the Illinois Department of Public Health and apparently smelled a solvent type odor. They took samples, got them back last Thursday," says Winnebago County Health Department Director of The Environmental Health Improvement Center, Larry Swacina.
The tests detected what are called "volatile organic chemicals," VOCs, in two private wells on Soper Avenue. Each well serves one home. Still the news alarms others in the area. "I think it's pretty unhealthy for us because we take showers in it, wash the dishes, cook with it," says Manuel Lopez who lives in the area.
No water-related illnesses have been reported. Swacina says representatives knocked on doors to alert people potentially at risk. "Short term, there can be respiratory and eye irritation. There could be nausea, dizziness, memory loss. Longer term, there could be damage to the kidney or liver," he says.
People living North of Auburn Street to Searls Park and East of Carbaugh Avenue to Alliance Avenue came to Northwest Community Center for an informational meeting. Public health administrators told the crowd they plan to take more samples to find out the extent of the problem.
Swacina says the Illinois EPA is part of the investigation to find a source. Health department workers encourage people in the area to drink bottled water, use a carbon filter and consider switching to city water.
