SCIO TOWNSHIP, MI -- They drank it. They cooked with it. They bathed in it. And they washed their clothes in it.

They even used it for mixing infant formula.

But nobody ever told them their home's well water was contaminated with dioxane and wasn't safe, Wesley Pate and his wife, Heather, said this week.

For the past two and a half years, the couple has rented a house at 5005 Jackson Road, just west of Ann Arbor in Scio Township, where they're raising three young children -- two boys, ages 2 and 3, and a daughter who turns 1 in April.

They said they were alarmed this week to find out their water was contaminated with a toxic chemical substance that can cause cancer, respiratory problems, and kidney and liver damage. Dioxane is classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as likely to be carcinogenic to humans by all routes of exposure.

The property at 5005 Jackson Road sits atop the Gelman dioxane plume that continues to expand in Ann Arbor and Scio Township.

It's also considered to be highly flammable and potentially explosive if exposed to light or air, according to the EPA.

And for the last several years, it's been in the drinking water at 5005 Jackson Road, as well as some other nearby properties on private wells.

Pate and his wife said they had no idea, and they now believe it may explain some of the health problems the family has suffered, including respiratory problems all three of their children have and Heather's liver and kidney problems.

"I'm pissed off beyond means," Pate said, noting they're planning to move as soon as possible. "I just want to get out of the house. Just being in here nauseates me."

"We didn't deserve this. My kids didn't deserve this," Heather said, recalling times she says doctors couldn't explain what was happening to her children.

"And then you feel guilty as parents because you're supposed to be the ones to protect them and you move them into a house where we've been giving them contaminated water for three years."

The house sits atop the expanding 1,4-dioxane plume that originated decades ago from the Gelman Sciences property on Wagner Road.

Gelman was acquired by Pall Corp. in 1997. Through court orders, the company remains responsible for the toxic mess it created, with state oversight intended to ensure the public isn't exposed. The state's approach to toxic pollutants is to manage the risk of exposure, not require polluters to fully clean up their messes.

And so the underground plume of dioxane, first discovered in the 1980s, continues to spread through Ann Arbor and Scio Township, contaminating more of the area's groundwater and private wells for residences and businesses.

It's described by local officials as a slow-motion environmental disaster, one that poses a significant threat in the long run to the entire city's water supply.

Records obtained by The Ann Arbor News from Washtenaw County Environmental Health show there has been regular monitoring of dioxane concentrations in the well water at 5005 Jackson Road for more than a decade.

The sampling is done by Pall Corp. and reported to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

Readings going back to 2005 show dioxane concentrations in the home's well water near 50 parts per billion.

The readings have gradually gone down over the years, dropping to 33 ppb by 2010, and then to 17 ppb in recent months.

That's below the state's allowable standard of 85 ppb, which is why nothing has been done about it, but it's above what's believed to be safe.

The EPA published new findings in 2010 showing dioxane at 3.5 ppb in drinking water poses a 1 in 100,000 cancer risk.

The state for the last several years has enforced a cleanup standard of 85 ppb. That was intended to result in the same 1 in 100,000 cancer risk, but the EPA has indicated the cancer risks are greater than previously believed.

The state has been slow to adopt the latest science, and as a result there's no legal remedy for anyone with dioxane in their water below the 85 ppb standard.

But in anticipation of finally setting a stricter state standard below 10 ppb sometime later this year, the DEQ has been talking to Pall Corp. recently about dioxane coming out of the tap at 5005 Jackson Road.

Bob Wagner, the DEQ's Remediation and Redevelopment Division chief, publicly told local officials on Feb. 18 that Pall Corp. has voluntarily agreed to extend Ann Arbor municipal water service to the property as soon as possible because of dioxane levels exceeding the anticipated single-digit standard.

The contaminated well also serves nearby businesses, including the Backseat Productions recording studio and Heirloom Furniture Restoration.

Wagner said last month the DEQ would supply bottled water to anyone on well water with dioxane levels above the anticipated single-digit standard.

There have been concerning levels of dioxane in the well water at 5005 Jackson Road for years.

"We will provide safe drinking water to any resident or business that has well water containing 1,4-dioxane exceeding the current criteria of 85 ppb, as well as the new proposed criteria that we'll soon be releasing," he told local officials.

But that hasn't happened yet.

Pate and his wife, who said they continued to give their children dioxane-contaminated water until this week, said they weren't even aware of the situation until Dan Bicknell, who first discovered the Gelman dioxane plume in the 1980s, came to their house on Monday to make sure they were in the know.

Bicknell said he found out they weren't. He's now speaking out and criticizing the DEQ, saying the state is not being protective of public health.

"In my view, it's unconscionable that they knew those wells were impacted but yet they didn't go tell the people," he said. "I can understand them saying, 'Well, it wasn't over 85 ppb,' but they know that 85 ppb is not protective."

Bicknell, president of Global Environment Alliance LLC, is drawing parallels between the situation here and what has happened in Flint.

"It's outrageous," he said, chalking it up to lax enforcement and dismissal of public concerns. "This is real life -- this poor guy, raising his kids, drinking this, because no one has told him about it, and everybody in the government has known about it for years. It goes back to 2003, for God's sake."

Wagner shared the DEQ's perspective on the situation at 5005 Jackson Road during an Ann Arbor City Council work session Monday night.

"With respect to risk, we have one location in Scio Township where we are aware of 1,4-dioxane in a drinking water well," Wagner said. "We have received Pall's commitment just recently to hook up that well or to basically abandon that well and hook up that resident to municipal water. That is the only location that someone has been drinking or has potentially been exposed to 1,4-dioxane.

"There is nowhere else that I'm aware that that's occurring. Now I understand the concern to not let that happen. I totally get that, which is why we've asked for more resources, which is why we will do sampling of residential wells, and we will move in to provide bottled water if that happens, so we will address those risks."

Records obtained by The Ann Arbor News show dioxane also has been detected -- typically around 1-3 ppb -- in other private wells being monitored along Jackson, Wagner and Elizabeth roads.

Evan Pratt, Washtenaw County's water resources commissioner, fired off a heavily critical email to the DEQ on Wednesday, calling for immediate action to address the situation on Jackson Road, agreeing the water there is unsafe to drink.

Because the DEQ hasn't acted yet, Pratt said, he's planning to personally deliver water to the residence on Thursday.

Given what the DEQ has promised about providing safe water to people whose wells are contaminated, Pratt said he can't understand why so much time has passed and that hasn't happened yet. He said he's the angriest he's ever been about the situation, and he argues municipal water service could have been extended by now simply by extending a service line from existing pipes along Jackson Road.

Pratt said local officials went out of their way to tell people at recent public meetings the water is safe to drink, but it turns out that's not true for everyone.

He said this reinforces that there is a lack of meaningful contingency planning to protect the public. He predicts more people's wells will become contaminated as the plume continues to spread north, and he's calling for a better response.

Pate and his wife also point the finger at their landlord, Bob Rayer of Rayer Development LLC, claiming he never disclosed that the water was unsafe.

"All he had to do was tell us," Heather said. "And not only did he not tell us, we've been paying for the water that's contaminated. This house shouldn't even be allowed to be rented or sold with water that's contaminated."

Pate said Rayer actually told the family the water was safe to drink, so he let his children drink it and didn't think anything of it.

Rayer refuted those claims when reached by phone Wednesday night. He said he has always disclosed up front to his tenants that the water is contaminated and he said results from quarterly tests done by Pall Corp. are mailed to tenants.

"The water is contaminated, and all the tenants know about it," he said.

Pate and his wife said they may have gotten occasional reports in the mail disclosing test results, but they maintain they were never given any indication the water was unsafe. Technically, it never exceeded the state's 85 ppb standard.

"I don't understand the numbers. I'm not a scientist," said Pate, a maintenance worker at the nearby Scio Farms mobile home park. "I'm pretty sure I wouldn't miss something telling me not to drink the water."

Rayer, who owns a number of rental properties in the Jackson Road area, argues the test results provided to his tenants are self-explanatory. He took issue with Bicknell going and talking to his tenants about the dioxane in their water.

"I don't want him over there bothering my tenants," he said. "They're all well aware what's in the water."

Bicknell said multiple tenants with dioxane-contaminated wells told him they weren't aware.

Rayer said he was hesitant to rent the house at 5005 Jackson to the family. He said he had never rented to anyone with children before because there was dioxane in the water, but Pate and his wife said they just drink bottled water anyway.

Pate acknowledged he and his wife have been drinking bottled water most of the time because they don't like the smell or taste of the well water, which they noted has left the kitchen sink discolored, but they said they and their children still consumed the contaminated water sometimes and used it for other day-to-day needs.

On Wednesday afternoon, Pate and his wife said the family hadn't bathed or washed any clothes since finding out on Monday the water was contaminated.

They're considering throwing out everything they own that might have come in contact with dioxane.

"I think I'm past freaked out," Pate said. "My kids and my wife are my first priority. It's the whole reason I wake up every morning and start my day."

They said they're worried about potential long-term health impacts from their children's exposure to dioxane.

"What if they have something that can't be reversed? Or what if they don't have a cure for it? And what if they live the rest of their lives sick? Or God forbid, what if one of them dies?" Heather said.

They said the basement of the house is leaky and damp and has experienced significant flooding, with water coming up through the sump pump pit. They're concerned dioxane might have entered the house that way, too, or through vapor intrusion, and they also believe there might be mold spores in the air.

Heather said doctors recently said all three of their children might have asthma, and she has to give all three of them breathing treatments through oral inhalation of an albuterol sulfate solution -- every four to six hours, every day.

"But now that this has happened, I don't think they have asthma. I think it's the water. I think it's this house," she said.

"They just get too many coughs," she said of her children. "It's just coughing day in and day out, and we're giving them breathing treatments, so it should be getting somewhat better and it's not. All three of them. It happens during the day and then all night long. That's all we hear is coughing."

She said their daughter had bronchitis and both boys have had pneumonia, and their 3-year-old son has a growth problem and isn't gaining weight or getting taller.

As of last May, Heather said, her liver is failing and she doesn't know why. She said that was followed by kidney stones.

She said her children also have had high fevers and have broke out in hives, which they've never been able to explain.

She recalled having to rush one of her sons to the emergency room after he ran a high fever and broke out in hives in November.

"He looked like he had been stung by a thousand bees. They don't know why that happened," she said. "I was scared because he wasn't moving, he wasn't talking. It didn't even look like he was breathing."

Despite disagreeing about whether the family was informed about the dioxane in the water, Rayer said Pate and his wife are good tenants and really good parents.

Rayer acknowledged he used to work for Gelman Sciences, the company responsible for the dioxane, years ago. He said he did outside maintenance work.

In a turn of events, he said, he sued his former employer in recent years, seeking to have the company cover the cost of extending municipal water service to 5005 Jackson Road because of the dioxane in the well water there.

"I lost because the judge said the amount wasn't high enough to be unsafe, so that was it," he said.

"I didn't want to pay the $125,000, because it just didn't make business sense, and at that time the state said the water was perfectly good to drink."

Ryan Stanton covers the city beat for The Ann Arbor News. Reach him at ryanstanton@mlive.com.