70% of mobile home park water systems violated safe drinking water rules

Nearly 70% of mobile home parks that operate their own water systems violated EPA safe drinking water rules in the past five years. Over half failed to even perform required contaminant tests or properly report results. Residents in these parks — disproportionately low-income, elderly, and minority households — are drinking water that may contain arsenic, fecal coliform bacteria, or other pathogens, and they often have no idea because the violations go unreported. The reason this persists structurally is a regulatory gap: when a mobile home park runs its own small water system, it falls under different oversight than municipal water, but the EPA doesn't properly track or categorize these systems. States often miscategorize parks in their databases, making enforcement nearly impossible. Meanwhile, park owners — especially those focused on maximizing short-term cash flow — have no financial incentive to replace aging pipes because infrastructure costs cut into returns. When old pipes break and pressure drops, contaminants seep into water lines. Dead-end pipes create stagnant water that breeds bacteria. Residents are trapped because they can't move their homes and have no alternative water source.