DAVIE - The water is safe now. But people here are still afraid to drink it.
In two mobile home parks and an apartment complex, 5,500 residents buy their water from Ferncrest Utilities, a small private company.
Over nearly two decades, the water had high levels of chemicals linked to cancer and other ailments.
In April, after two years of warning letters, phone calls, consent agreements and a lawsuit against the company, the Broward County Health Department said the water now meets federal standards.
But customers, who have long complained about the color and odor, are not convinced the water is safe to drink.
"Nah, they sayin' that, but I don't believe it," said Herbert O'Rourke, an unemployed welder who lives in the Palma Nova Mobile Home Park.
"I don't trust any of [them]. Let them drink it," said Daniel Bilby, 50, an ironworker. "Let their kids drink it. I don't even give it to my cat."
For two years, residents received notices from Ferncrest telling them that the water had potentially harmful chemicals that may, over many years, lead to an "increased risk of getting cancer."
Some who drank it and bathed in it now wonder whether it affected their health.
At the Everglades Lakes Mobile Home Park, which caters to people 55 and older, Joan Robinson, who is in her 70s, has colon cancer. Her husband, 67, has throat cancer. Both smokers, they have lived there for 12 years.
The couple next door, ages 68 and 70, have non-Hodgkin lymphoma, chronic myeloid leukemia, prostate and skin cancer. They have lived there more than four years.
"Isn't it strange" that several neighbors "in a row here's got cancer?" said the lymphoma sufferer, Marlene Merrigan.
An 81-year-old woman next door to Merrigan died of cancer after living there for three years.
Did the water play a role?
Experts say Ferncrest customers probably will never know. Cancer can take up to 20 years to develop. People frequently move in and out of the area, making it hard to pinpoint exposure; and smoking, age, genetics, occupation and eating habits also play roles.
"It's certainly a reasonable thing for them to wonder about," said Harvard environmental epidemiologist Joel Schwartz.
The story of Ferncrest's water involves science, poor and elderly people, and perplexing regulations. Mostly it's about anger at the company and the government.
"You pay good money for water and then you can't even drink it," said Emil Borcicky, 84, who has lived at Everglades Lakes for 33 years.
Ferncrest bills him about $32 a month for 1,000 gallons.
Four chemicals
At the heart of the issue are four chemicals called trihalomethanes, or THMs. The best known of the four is chloroform, a former anesthetic that frequently pops up in murder mysteries. THMs form when chlorine, a disinfectant, mixes with organic material in water.
Broward County Health Department files show high levels of THMs in Ferncrest's water dating to 1990, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found.
In 1990, the levels were 67 percent over the limit considered safe at the time for large utilities. In 1991, they were 292 percent over. Ferncrest President Robert V. Salerno said: "I'm sure that before we ever started testing for trihalomethanes they were even higher."
The federal government has long regulated THMs in drinking water because they may cause cancer.
But Ferncrest customers weren't protected by those regulations for many years. Small utilities nationwide, like Ferncrest, did not have to comply with THM limits until 2004. Larger utilities, though, had to meet standards set as far back as 1979.
Ferncrest did not lower the levels of THMs before 2004 because the Environmental Protection Agency "wasn't telling us to do this," Ferncrest attorney Paul S. Figg said.
But by 2004, when the rules changed to apply to Ferncrest, the company still was out of compliance. At that point, the water also exceeded safety standards for another disinfection byproduct linked to cancer: haloacetic acids, or HAA5.
It took Ferncrest four more years to lower the levels of THMs and HAA5 and satisfy regulators. Independent tests commissioned by the
Sun-Sentinel in May confirmed the chemicals meet safety limits.
"It took long, we can't argue with that ... we took some missteps at points in the process," Figg said. "We were confused as to what we needed to do."
Many complaints
Ferncrest has long been owned and operated by a prominent Broward County family, headed by Hamilton C. Forman, a Davie pioneer and substantial landowner. Forman's son, real estate developer M. Austin Forman, is the majority shareholder, according to records filed with the state.
Austin Forman declined to answer the Sun-Sentinel's questions about Ferncrest's water. "Mr. Forman doesn't speak to the press about business or political activities at all," attorney Figg said.
Many Ferncrest customers have had a long-standing distrust of the company, lodging complaint after complaint about their water.
"It's horrible. It smells like a swimming pool sometimes. Sometimes it smells like a cesspool. There's debris in it," customer Robert Schubert told the state Public Service Commission in 1987.
"They're a complete ripoff," said Duane Lenox, 73, who said he stopped drinking the water two years ago after finding "sediment" in his glass.
Health inspections of the water plant, which regulators say is antiquated, have turned up "mudballs," algae, leaks, and corrosion, according to 2006 and 2007 county records.
In an August 2006 e-mail to Davie's mayor, Ferncrest customer William Santos complained about the THMs and HAA5 in the water. He noted that he had cancer but was advised by his doctor that he could drink the water "for a time."
"Ferncrest, in my opinion, should be fined and their operation canceled, turned over to the city or placed up for bids," Santos wrote.
Ferncrest's letters to customers said they did not have to buy bottled water, but "If you have specific health concerns, consult your doctor."
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention epidemiologist who has studied THMs for years suggests that longtime Ferncrest customers get regular checkups and tell their doctors about the contaminants that were in the water.
"Personally, I would be worried," said the CDC's Frank J. Bove.
Scientists consider longtime exposure to be about 20 to 30 years. But "we don't know how long you have to drink it," Bove said.
The EPA bases its standards on risks over 70 years -- basically a lifetime.
Ferncrest has been in business since 1969.
Steps taken
In its first letter to customers, in June 2006, Ferncrest said it could not meet the federal regulations without spending more than $1 million for new equipment. Instead the company said it would negotiate with Davie to buy the plant.
County officials gave Ferncrest time to structure the deal.
"We thought that the water plant would be phased out," said Thomas K. Mueller, director of the county Health Department section that monitors water plants. But the negotiations failed in early 2007.
In March 2007, the county threatened to fine Ferncrest $16,100. The next month, the company cut the amount of chlorine in the water, dramatically dropping the levels of THMs and HAA5.
Unsatisfied, the county asked a judge in May 2007 to force Ferncrest to "immediately cease providing water," or change the way it treats the water. The litigation continued until late January of this year when Ferncrest installed equipment to disinfect the water with chlorine and gaseous ammonia.
The system is commonly used by public water systems. It, too, has its drawbacks, including the potential formation of another probable carcinogen, N-Nitrosodimethylamine, or NDMA. The EPA is considering setting limits for NDMA in drinking water. Also, water treated with ammonia in Washington, D.C., and North Carolina caused lead to leach from solder in pipes. Lead can damage the brain, nervous system and red blood cells, particularly in children.
The county Health Department has asked Ferncrest to test its lead levels twice in the next year.
