An Anchorage landlord has been fined more than $500,000 after failing to fix problems with the ground well water at a Spenard apartment complex, or warn tenants that the water contained heightened levels of arsenic, officials say.

Trudy E. Tush, owner of the apartment complex at 1117 Chugach Way, failed for years to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"For the past decade, those ongoing violations have endangered residents," prosecutors said in court documents provided by the EPA.

About 40 tenants live in the multi-building apartment complex at any given time, court documents say. Tush was required to regularly test the well water for various contaminants, including arsenic, but failed to do so, the EPA said.

In May, officials confirmed that the contaminated water system was no longer in service and that the apartment complex had been connected to clean drinking water by an Anchorage utility, documents say.

For years prior, the sole water source at the apartment complex was a groundwater well. From at least 2009 to 2017, arsenic levels exceeded allowable contamination, and Tush never provided the required notice to her tenants warning them of those increased levels. EPA testing showed that the water exceeded the legal levels by more than 50 percent, the agency said.

Over the years, the EPA said, Tush failed to notify about 360 tenants of the increased arsenic levels.

Tush could not immediately be reached for comment. Nobody answered when a reporter knocked on the door of an apartment publicly listed as Tush's residence.

Arsenic is a carcinogen, and long-term exposure has been linked to cancer of the bladder, lungs, skin, kidneys, liver, prostate and nasal passages, according to the EPA. The maximum contaminant level for arsenic under both state and federal law is 10 micrograms per liter, according to court documents.

Court documents say that Tush has owned the apartment complex since around 2002. In 2009, and again in 2011, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation issued notices of violation to Tush regarding insufficient monitoring of the well water.

In 2014, the Department of Environmental Conservation asked the EPA to step in. Both agencies say Tush hasn't responded to multiple attempts to reach her.

In April 2018, the EPA filed a complaint against Tush in the U.S. District Court for Alaska, seeking $588,684 for Safe Drinking Water Act violations. The judgment was upheld in full, court documents show.