"You can't drink it or anything, they say you can't even boil the stuff out of it," said Wildomar resident Randy Hongola. "You're not suppose to bathe in it, yet they still send you a bill for it."
Residents are forced to buy bottled water because their drinking water contains high levels of nitrate - and it's getting worse, according to a new study.
Three weeks ago, water quality expert and teacher Michael Creighton launched a project with his students. Together they set out to analyze the well water.
"The tank itself is not properly secured and so we decided to go in and collect a sample from that tank," said Creighton, who teaches an environmental law and regulation class at Mt. San Jacinto College.
The study showed the well, which is owned by County Water Company of Riverside, contains 97 milligrams per liter of nitrate. That's more than twice the legal limit of 45 milligrams per liter.
The attorney representing the owners said they are working on several options, one of which includes shutting off the pump to the well and transition the 100 customers to a larger water district.
"I am upset because it's been years now," said Davina Ashmore of Wildomar. "You would think somebody would do something about it. Well, they haven't."
Creighton and his students have launched the group Safe Drinking Water for Wildomar in the hopes of getting clean and safe water to residents.
"You would think being a citizen of the United States, we're not in a third-world country, but there are people drinking unsafe water," said one of the students, Monique Riedel.