Help the Tarr family get clean water now!
My name is Erica Tarr, and my husband Jon and I have called Delaware County home from before we first started dating in Middle School. We moved from our starter home in Wallingford, PA to our dream home in Glen Mills, PA in April 2019, as our family outgrew our first home with the additions of our daughter Evie and our pup Luna. We are excited to be expecting our second daughter this September.
We have been living with a contaminated well water supply and all efforts to treat the water have failed. After fighting for over a year and a half to obtain clean water, we are at a loss. We have spent over $40K installing new equipment, drilling a new well, testing water samples, paying attorney fees, repairing well equipment, etc. At this point, we have run out of funds. While we ultimately need public water, as that would be the only permanent solution, that is not an option at this time. We can’t keep living with our untreatable water; our quality of life is horrible and it is exhausting doing laundry and showering/bathing at our family members' homes every couple of days. Our daughter has not taken a bath at our home since December 2020, and we need to come up with a solution before we bring a newborn home in September. The only proposed solution is to install new commercial/industrial grade equipment that might be successful in treating our water; only time will tell if that equipment will be durable enough and how long it will last before it needs maintenance/repairs.
The price tag for the new industrial grade equipment and the redevelopment of our well is approximately $35K. We were quoted $500K to extend the public water main the 0.4 miles to us. The $500K is well out of reach and not realistic, but we are hopeful that we can come up with the $35K to install the temporary fix. While we never wanted to reach out and ask for assistance from our friends and family, the time has come for us to ask for support in raising these funds so that we can get back to living a more normal life again.
Read on to hear the whole story of our water nightmare... There is so much information to share, so I am trying to keep each post brief. I will post updates with more detailed information about the Mariner East Pipeline System, our original well being impacted by pipeline construction activities, the VOC (chemical) contamination of our new well, the history of the jet fuel spill from a 1992 pipeline rupture that was not fully cleaned up in the 90s, the PA Department of Environmental Protection’s stance, the need for hydrogeological studies to “prove” the contamination (over $100K), why it's not just a cut and dry legal case, how living like this has affected our mental health, etc...
Thank you for taking the time to read about our water woes. While we understand that not everyone has the means to donate, we appreciate you sharing our campaign to raise awareness. We will not stop fighting to get the clean water that we desperately need and deserve!
EXCLUSIVE: Family Believes Mariner East Pipeline Construction Led To Water Being Contaminated With Chemicals Found In Jet Fuel – CBS Philly News Segment January 6th 2020
'We can't live like this': residents say a corrupt pipeline project is making them sick | Pennsylvania | The Guardian Article Published January 2020
