WAKE FOREST, NC -- A state agency is reportedly honing in on two local printed circuit board assembly companies as the sources of a water contamination issue.

The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources did not cite the companies by name, but a check of the address provided by the agency suggest the companies under scrutiny could be Team Electric and Circuit Board Assemblers. A third company, C-Tron, has also been mentioned in reports as a possible source. One resident claims he saw the former owner of C-Tron dumping chemicals during the years of 2000 to 2002.

The DENR says the area is rife with soil and water contamination caused by the discharge of trichloroethylene, or TCE.

"We know that (TCE) was present in soils on the property. We know there was a discharge on that property. We know there's ground water contamination. We have to show which of those parties did that," a DENR spokeswoman said, according to WRAL, a local media outlet.

Nearly two dozen area homes have tested positive for TCE, some at dangerously high levels.

While the DENR has been aware of the problem since 2005, the EPA only recently has become involved.

In 2000 Circuit Board Assemblers was sold to Flextronics, which closed the plant in 2007.

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