A manufactured home park outside Laurel has been without potable tap water for a week, and for the community's many Spanish-speaking residents, information about the crisis has been difficult to access.
The roughly 250 residents of the Briarwood Manor manufactured home park southeast of Laurel received notice from management in late March that the park’s water main would be turned off during working hours for a week for system maintenance. But last Wednesday, after electrical problems caused the primary well to fail, residents were left without running water.
When running water returned on Sunday, it was thick with sand, prompting a switch to a backup well.
According to a letter delivered to residents on Tuesday, that backup may be contaminated with nitrates, making it unsafe for drinking or cooking. "The water is to be used only for flushing and taking showers," park management emphasized.
But several Spanish-speaking residents attest that management have only offered updates in English, leaving a significant portion of the community without clear guidance on how to safely use their tap water or when they can expect potable water to return.
Filiberto, who has lived in the park for roughly three years and asked to be identified by his first name, says some families are relying on their children to translate letters from park management.
"Sure, there are lots of kids around who [can read English]," he said, "but clearly not every resident can understand the letters."
Filiberto added that English-speaking children may struggle to help their parents ask clarifying questions of management.
Another resident, who asked to be called Oscar, says that he and his family opted to shower at a relative's house in Delmar out of an abundance of caution. "I want to know if it's safe to use the water for personal hygiene — like brushing teeth — but I don't know who to ask," he said.
Both Filiberto and Oscar noted that water quality has been a routine challenge in the park since their arrival. Delaware Manufactured Home Owners’ Association President Bill Kinnick says the park has also seen a spate of sewer failures in recent months.
“[Park management] were in court last year for sewer systems that hadn’t been replaced," he said. "They finally got the new sewer system in, but they started failing because they weren’t put in properly.”
Delaware Attorney General's Office previously sued Briarwood Manor's management in 2002, in part because of concerns over the quality of the park's drinking water.
The park is currently owned by the KDM Development Corporation, a New York-based company that owns a half-dozen other manufactured home communities in Delaware.
Those include the Donovan Smith Manufactured Home Community in Lewes, which drew media attention in 2021 after a series of septic system failures prompted intervention by Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Preservation and Department of Health and Social Services. The Donovan Smith Community is in the process of connecting to Lewes' municipal sewer system.
Delaware Public Media has contacted KDM Development for comment on the absence of translated information for Spanish-speaking Briarwood Manor residents.
In the interim, park management have begun delivering cases of bottled water to park residents, supplemented by deliveries of water from the Delaware Manufactured Home Owners' Assocation and employees from the Delaware Department of Justice, among others.
In the letter delivered to residents on Tuesday, management wrote that they "anticipate resolving the problem within 14 days."
A notice on a whiteboard — written in English — outside the park's pump station on Wednesday provided a more detailed update, announcing plans to drill an entirely new well and offering a tentative start date in the first week of May.
Meanwhile, the Delaware DOJ says it is currently "currently evaluating the situation and our role" at Briarwood Manor.
