GRANDVIEW, Wash. (AP) -- State officials are scrambling to test dozens of wells in the Grandview area after high levels of a cancer-causing herbicide were found in a second drinking water well.
Officials are warning residents in the area to not drink their water until they have had their wells tested for Dinoseb.
"It's worrisome because who knows how many other places out there are like this?" said Joye Redfield-Wilder, spokeswoman with the state Department of Ecology.
The herbicide, which was banned 12 years ago, can cause liver damage, among other things.
Officials believe the contamination might have been caused by a person dumping several 30-gallon barrels of the chemical.
Bruce and Diane Etzel on Monday loaded a 425-gallon tank into the back of their pickup to haul to Prosser. They planned to fill the tank with water from the Benton County yard and empty it into a water storage tank at home.
Ecology found high levels of the hazardous herbicide Dinoseb in the family's private well Saturday.
The Etzels cannot use the ground water for anything -- bathing, drinking, washing dishes or doing laundry. They must have blood tests taken to determine how much of the herbicide has gotten into their bodies.
The Etzel home is about a mile south of another private well that was reported Friday to have dangerously high levels of the herbicide.
A family there alerted health officials when members broke out in hives and had sores on the inside of their mouths.
The family reported its water was yellow and left a lingering taste, Redfield-Wilder said.
Officials at the Ecology Department believe the two wells were contaminated by land adjacent to the first site. Several empty 30-gallon drums that held the chemical were found next door, Redfield-Wilder said.
Ecology isn't releasing the name of the owner of the property on which the drums were found until an investigation is completed.
Dinoseb, which can be harmful if inhaled, touched or swallowed, was a commonly used herbicide until the federal government banned it in 1986. It's considered extremely toxic and has been shown to cause cancer and birth defects in animals.
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