A white ice-cream truck drives by the Iowa Regency mobile-home park, past week-old wreckage of demolished houses and a swampy condemned pool unevenly filled with a mound of dirt.

Children line up to buy their treats, standing near years-old abandoned homes.

The scene’s unkempt background has worried many for years. Dozens of formal complaints about the area stemming back to the 1990s have related to aesthetics, sewage, contaminated water, and potentially hazardous waste.

Officials from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources recently ordered an upgrade of the Regency’s wastewater-treatment center. The agency took action after a visit to the park revealed high levels of fecal coliforms and ammonia discharged into the Iowa River nearby.

Russell Royce, a Natural Resources environmental specialist, visited the facility in July. He found a manhole overflowing with sewage.

Then he found the manager at the time had no prior experience and had been on the job for two days. Royce informed the manager of her responsibilities for sending water samples to the state and abiding by its regulations.

Officials at the mobile-home park declined to comment on the wastewater problem aside from saying they are working to resolve it.

But Natural Resources has received reports of other troubles with the company, stretching back to 1996. In a document dated July 2009, the park was fined $4,000 for numerous complaints and regulation violations.

One of the documents alleges a broken sewer lift that pumps sewage garnered two complaints in one week in June 2007, despite a visit from Natural Resources.

Agency officials found sewage flowing on the ground and under one resident’s home, reports show.

“The water smells like manure,” said 18-year-old resident Devon Menard, and he distinctly remembered seeing rust rushing out of his faucet.

The water looks and tastes bad, said Paul Brandt, a Natural Resources environmental specialist, because of secondary contaminants. The pollutants include such minerals as iron, which Brandt said was “very annoying” but safe to drink.

“Because of the secondary contaminants, it can taste bad, it can stain your shirt, and it makes bad coffee,” he said.

The mobile-home park has struggled with water-quality issues even before 1996.

When the community was built in the 1970s, residents relied on one drinking well. It was 400 feet deep, making it more susceptible to pollutants such as radium — prolonged exposure to such pollutants is known to cause cancer, Royce said.

Sampling revealed this well was slightly over 5 picrocuries, which is the allowed ratio of radium, Brandt said.

After digging several shallower drinking wells, Brandt said, the mobile-home park began to use the 400-feet deep well again in 2007.

Relaxing on his front porch, Menard said he feels conditions are unlikely to change in his neighborhood.

“They are just basically letting it rot,” he said.