YORK COUNTY, S.C. -- Howard Wilford moved out of the Foxwood neighborhood 17 years ago. However, he's worried enough about the drinking water there that he showed up at a packed meeting in Fort Mill on Monday night.

"I think there's more to this than (the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control) is telling people," Wilford said.

DHEC and local officials met with residents from the Foxwood neighborhood at Fort Mill Elementary School. Some neighbors stood up holding jars full of dirty brown water that came from their own taps.

"It always had a funky smell," Wilford said. "It had a bad smell to it, and a bad taste to it."

That was back in 1979 when the Foxwood neighborhood off Merritt Road was first developed and Wilford built one of the first homes there.

The neighborhood is served by a private system of community wells operated by a nearby business. Several of those wells were closed when contamination was found in the early ‘90s. New wells were dug and are regularly monitored. However, homeowners said that's not enough.

"It wasn't like you were drinking water. It's like it was dust," said Clark Copenhaver, who moved into Foxwood in the early ‘80s.

He told Eyewitness News he hasn't taken a sip from the tap in years. He buys bottled water instead.

"We shower and we bathe, but I don't drink it," he said.

Copenhaver went to the community meeting Monday hoping to hear solutions but left disappointed.

"It's just the same old song and dance," he said.

Officials did suggest that the neighborhood look into the cost of tapping onto a large county water main in the area. They plan to set up a committee of residents to learn the cost and feasibility of such an effort.

DHEC told residents there are two separate water issues in Foxwood. The brown, sometimes black, and smelly water is caused by pipe corrosion or possibly iron or manganese deposits that usually clear up in a few days.

A second issue is from two industrial chemicals known as TCE and PCE that have been found in the well system there since the early ‘90s. Both are the result of discharges from factories. They are used primarily as solvents or degreasers in heavy machinery.

According to quarterly tests done at several wells, the levels of those two chemicals are within Environmental Protection Agency limits for safety. That means the water is safe to drink and use for other purposes. The chemicals are colorless and odorless.

However that doesn't satisfy some neighbors, who are worried about long-term exposure that can cause liver problems and an increased risk for cancer.

The EPA’s own Web site lists TCE and PCE as hazardous.

DHEC said it's not known how long those chemicals were being released into the water, but officials reiterated that recent tests show contamination within acceptable limits.

For those like Copenhaver, it's not acceptable and never has been.

"I would like to think that somebody will make a stand before a class action lawsuit, or before somebody dies from this," Copenhaver.

Other neighbors told Eyewitness News about an old dumpsite in a field just beyond a locked gate at one end of the Foxwood community. Wilford remembers seeing construction debris there, as well as partially buried drums that might have contained chemicals

He believes the EPA should get involved and study the area to determine if a larger clean up is needed.

"If there's still contamination there, somebody should clean it up," he said.