MADISON, Wis. -- Officials with the city's water utility told East Side residents on Monday night that they were beginning to look for a site for a new well.

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Neighborhoods on Madison's East Side have been plagued with water woes for years.

The city's Well No. 3, which sits at the corner of First and Johnson streets, has had particular problems with iron, manganese and carbon tetrachloride, which can cause cancer, WISC-TV reported. The well was shut down and has been out of operation since earlier this year.

On Monday night, area residents packed Holy Cross Lutheran Church for an informational meeting and to voice their concern to utility officials about the safety of their drinking water.

"My twin infants have never drunk the water and never will," replied one resident.

Water Utility Director Dave Denig-Chakroff said that the No. 3 well was the city's oldest and had been in operation for 78 years.

Chakroff said that the water utility board and water experts looked at several options, but they felt the best option was to abandon Well No. 3 and build an entirely new well somewhere on the Isthmus. The board is now looking for 1-acre sites, he said.

However, finding a suitable site might prove to be difficult. Wells can't be within 400 feet of underground gasoline tanks, near dry-cleaning operations or landfills, according to water engineers.

Some said that they doubt a suitable site can be found.

"The Isthmus is an old industrial corridor," said Fae Dremock, a 30-year resident. "At the last meeting, these people said it would be hard to drill a well in the area, a well free of contamination."

Water experts said that it would be a combination of site selection and modern construction that would make a new well safer.

"Well No. 3 was constructed in 1928 under very different standards than we use for well construction today," Chakroff said. "It didn't have a casing that was deep enough to protect the deep water aquifer."

Resident Ken Opin said that wells should be designed to last 80 years or more.

"They've been drawing water out of the ground in Europe and Middle East for the millennia," he said. "In the greater scheme of things, 80 years doesn't seem like that long of time. The reason we have poor water quality coming out of this is because of what people have done to it."

While iron and manganese occur naturally in underground aquifers, some residents questioned where the carbon tetrachloride contamination came from.

Chakroff said to the best of their knowledge, an old paint manufacturer was responsible for the ground contamination. He said it is impossible to prove because many of the old industrial companies once located in that area went out of business many, many years ago, WISC-TV reported.

Chakroff said it would take a minimum of six years to build a new well and site selection alone could take two years. He said the earliest East Side residents would see a new well would be in 2012.

The water utility is looking for citizen volunteers to form a focus group on water issues. They encouraged anyone interested to call 608-266-4651.