OXFORD – A mobile home park on Skeetfield Road has two options in the wake of a weekend water failure, according to the Maine Safe Water Drinking Program.

Inspectors from two state agencies visited the Oxford Pines Regency mobile home park on Skeetfield Road on Thursday following a well failure Dec. 28.

“It seems to have partially collapsed,” said Roger Crouse, acting director of the agency.

Crouse said the agency has required the park to hire a consultant to consider available options for repairing the water system. The park may either develop a new source of water or connect to the Oxford Water District.

Crouse said silt and clay appeared to have blocked the screen of the sand and gravel well, prohibiting water flow into the well casing. The well failure was not confirmed until Monday. Crouse said sand was pumped into the well during the failure, and the well is not being used at the moment to avoid pumping more sand into the system.

The park issued a boil-water order last Friday, which was confirmed by the state the next day. Crouse said the order was because of the sand, and was unaware of any other contaminants.

Crouse said the system is operating at two gallons a minute, and said the park requires a flow of 20-30 gallons of water per minute.

The Manufactured Housing Board, a state regulatory agency, has required the park to provide water for a 10,000-gallon holding tank around the clock. It has also required the park to provide bottled water to tenants. The board also sent an inspector to the park Thursday.

Crouse said water is being trucked to the park, but the cold weather has presented problems.

“Hauling water in this temperature is difficult, because the tankers start having freeze-up problems,” said Crouse.

Crouse estimated that the park requires 40,000 gallons for daily use, meaning the tank has to be refilled multiple times.

Ryan Lippincott, superintendent of the Norway Water District, said the park had purchased about 16,000 gallons from the Oxford Water District. He said the Norway Water District is responsible for day-to-day operations in the park and needed to approve the sale.

Nate Saunders, a state engineer who has worked at the park, said Oxford Pines experienced problems last year with repeated loss of water pressure. The system was later repaired.

“It was mostly due to distribution system leak, although at the time there was some evidence of sand coming in,” said Saunders.

The park contains 137 mobile homes and is owned by Regency of Maine Inc. In July, four couples and seven individuals filed a civil complaint against the park owner, alleging poor and dangerous conditions at the park.

The plaintiffs include allegations of multiple water system shutoffs during the winter of 2006 and spring of 2007 for repair work. The complaint charges that boil water orders related to the work were “late and intermittent,” and that sewage from damaged lines leaked into damaged water lines.

Regency denied the allegations, and filed forcible entry and detainer actions against 15 of the 16 plaintiffs, charging them with failing to pay rent and leave the park. Jeffrey P. White, an Auburn attorney representing the tenants, replied that Regency failed to correct conditions while the tenants’ rents were current.

The civil suit is still pending, but the South Paris District Court decided in October to stay the actions for 60 days, with the condition that the tenants would deposit half of the rent due into an escrow account with the other half going to Regency. Tenants must also alternate future rent payments between an escrow account and Regency.

Crouse said the inspector’s recommendations will be ready by Wednesday.

Chris Thorman, the park manager, was unavailable for comment on Thursday.