When her 14-year-old daughter’s hair started falling out, Alexandra Anaya didn’t know what could be causing it.

Now she wonders if it’s their tap water.

Hair loss is a known side effect of prolonged exposure to arsenic, and the mobile home park they’ve lived in for two years is one of several in Eastern Oregon’s Malheur County where state regulators have found dangerous levels of the naturally occurring element in the well water supplied to people’s homes.

Mobile home parks across rural Oregon are susceptible to drinking water contamination, state officials say. Water testing last month again revealed arsenic had tainted the water at the park where Anaya lives.

She and fellow residents say they’ve since struggled to get critical information, especially in Spanish, and that the bottled water from emergency managers and community groups has been meted out so sparingly they can’t meet their needs.

The Anaya family is among about 37 households living in Fischer’s Place Mobile Home Park just outside of Nyssa near the Oregon-Idaho border, a predominantly Spanish-speaking community surrounded by the farms that employ some of the residents.

Anaya has five kids, the youngest being 5 years old.

“I talk to the neighbors and it scares me more,” she said in Spanish. “One lady told me her husband is getting surgery on a lump doctors recently found. She thinks it’s from the water.”

State regulators have found arsenic in the tap water at this park 26 times since 2004, Oregon Health Authority Records show.

Last month, the agency’s testing showed levels that were nearly six times federal health limits. Arsenic, which naturally occurs in some aquifers, can increase the risk of cancer, stomach pain and other health problems, according to OHA.

The agency issued a Do Not Drink advisory notice for Fischer’s Place Sept. 14, but some residents said they weren’t warned until two days later — when the county’s emergency manager posted about it on Facebook.

It’s the latest example of problems with well water and lagging information at mobile home parks in Malheur County.

There are currently two other parks near Fischer’s Place under Do Not Drink advisory notices, one that’s been ongoing since 2015 due to high arsenic levels and another in place since last year due to high nitrate levels.

“This is a statewide issue,” said OHA spokesperson Jonathan Modie.

Arsenic can be removed from drinking water with specialized filtration systems, but it’s up to the property owner to pay for that and maintain safety, he said, and mobile home parks often fail to meet drinking water standards because they do not have trained staff to maintain their systems.

OHA staff did a routine water sample at Fischer’s Place in early September and got results back Sept. 14, which showed 57.7 parts per billion of arsenic. That’s nearly six times higher than the federal drinking water standard of 10 ppb. A follow-up sample last week showed 35 parts per billion of arsenic, Modie said.

Modie said OHA staff reached out to the mobile home park’s owner, Todd Pentrack, but the agency has not heard back directly from the owner. The agency has had contact with the park’s on-site manager, according to Modie. The manager did not respond to OPB’s requests for comment.

Pentrack, who lives on the other side of Oregon in Scappoose, bought the Malheur County park in 2019. Since then, its well water has tested positive for elevated arsenic six times.

When OPB reached Pentrack by phone this week, he disputed Modie’s account, and said he’s been in contact with state health authorities since Sept. 14, when they notified him of the latest results.

Pentrack said he thinks tenants have been provided with bottled water, and that the on-site property manager is in charge of the response. Residents have said the property manager hasn’t been reachable throughout a crisis that’s been going on for a month.

Pentrack said if he needs to revamp the water system, he will do it.

“I wish the water was better too,” he said.

He also owns Cedar Tree Mobile Home Park, located in Columbia County. OHA records show the property has also had several boil advisories for testing positive for total coliform and for loss of water pressure, which can lead to contamination.

At Fischer’s Place, several residents said they first learned the water isn’t safe on Facebook, before receiving a text message from the park manager.

Malheur County’s Emergency Manager Rich Harriman posted on Facebook Sept. 16 to warn people to not attempt boiling the water to make it safe.

Harriman said he took 30 cases of bottled water to the park manager’s husband and then made a request for seven additional pallets, which the Oregon Food Bank later delivered.

Eddie Melendrez, community organizer for the food bank, said he went to the park again days later alongside staff from the county and a farmworker aid group.

“We went door to door to speak with residents and share information about arsenic in Spanish, after we learned that many of the 37 families were facing barriers to information,” Melendrez said.

He said having access to safe water and stable living conditions is a fundamental right. Many residents, he said, were not aware that bottled water was available to them for free.

As Anaya and her family sat on their porch on a recent afternoon, three kids were out on their bikes, riding up and down the rows of mobile homes, the sun hitting their sweaty foreheads. Anaya’s 5-year-old son went in and out of the home with a friend.

Across the street, another family was outside playing music and cooking carne asada. In between songs, a rooster nearby could be heard crowing. The pallets loaded with packs of water in small drink-sized bottles sat just a few feet from them, near the park’s entrance.

Half a dozen residents said the park manager told them to only take five packs per week. For Anaya’s household of seven, that’s not enough to meet basic needs, she said.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/13/malheur-county-arsenic-well-water-mobile-home-parks/