County replaces contaminated water at Cocoa Beach dog park

COCOA BEACH, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - John McGhee says the dog park at Lori Wilson in Cocoa Beach is heaven for his pets, but he does not let them drink the water here.

"I'm still feeding him bottled water," says McGhee, about his dog. "I'm not taking any chances now."

The problem is, the City of Cocoa Beach just learned the dog park's well water is contaminated with man-made perflourinated compounds. Newly released test results shows the Lori Wilson Dog Park well had 123  parts per trillion of the cancer causing compounds PFOA and PFOS. That's well over the EPA's recommended guideline of 70 parts per trillion for drinkable water. Park visitors told us some dogs got sick after drinking this well water.

A recent report by the U.S. Department of Defense found high levels of the industrial chemicals in the groundwater at Patrick Air Force Base. Now, the same has been confirmed in neighboring Cocoa Beach, where tainted sewage from the Base is processed into reclaimed water-- and sprayed onto the ground through sprinkler systems here.

After Brevard County learned about the contaminated dog park well, they changed the source of water. County staff connected enough garden hoses to reach a nearby park spigot, which has clean drinkable city water.

"Kinda glad," said Kaitlin Guthrie of Jacksonville. "Pretty relieved."