ST. CHARLES, Mo. – FOX 2 continues to dig for answers about who is responsible for the water contamination in St. Charles. Five of the seven water wells in St. Charles are shut down, and while local leaders work out a plan to move forward, the city continues to buy water daily from St. Louis.

The current consent decree on the St. Charles website is from when just two wells were shut down. New documents filed in the federal court state the issue with the current decree is that three more water wells have been shut down.

“Shortly after September of 21 is when we started seeing the flume expansion,” said St. Charles Mayor Dan Borgmeyer. “We started seeing a lot more problems, and the contamination went up. So we said, ‘Hey, wait a minute, let’s revisit that.'”

The new documents filed in the federal court show St. Charles’ issue with the current decree is “conditions have changed. Indeed, when the ROD was entered in June 2021 CW-4 and CW-5 were shut down. Since the ROD was entered, the city shut down CW-6, CW-8, and CW-9 because of VOCs detected in groundwater at or near those production wells.”

“Since then, it’s been back and forth and bureaucracy, and we’ll keep testing and we’ll do this, and it just isn’t taking us where we need to go,” Borgmeyer said. “I have a situation where I have people who want clean drinking water, and I’ve vowed to give them that. So as you know, we’re moving forward with some plans to bring some equipment in and help remediate the situation.”

The mayor said the EPA is responsible for submitting the consent decree to the Department of Justice. He also said the deadline for the federal judge to accept is approaching quickly, which is why the city is asking the judge to reconsider moving forward.

“Look at the findings in the consent decree because once the consent decree is filed and accepted, it’s closed for five years,” Borgmeyer said. “So this is pretty serious, and I think that date is approaching in March. So that’s all we’re doing in court is asking them to review the consent decree and not accept it because we feel there is inaccuracies in it.”

The EPA is holding a meeting on Feb. 26.