One family, of potentially dozens more, has received almost $1 million in an award from a drinking water company for improperly installed a water purification system that introduced contaminants, in the form of raw sewage, into the family's water, as reported by CBS 4 Local in Denver.
The C. family, of Commerce City, is one of the thousands of customers that water purification company, AquaKleen, serves. Of that number, there have been dozens of other complaints from customers experiencing the same problem as the C. family.
Other residents living in the Commerce City area have been prompted to check into their water purifications systems to look for any potential risks.
N.C. and R.C. moved into a home in Commerce City in December of 2006.
Due to an alleged high mineral content in the city's water, residents had often complained about the taste of their water. This bad taste is what prompted the C.'s to seek out a water purification system – and they purchased one from AquaKleen.
However, according to the C. family, even with the new water system the water smell worsened. Now their water smelled of feces.
AquaKleen checked into the complaints and stated that the C. family's water was fine. But according to the C.'s lawyer, Dan Caplis, AquaKleen never actually checked for contaminants.
Caplis said, "The (C.'s) keep calling, the company keeps saying, 'We're testing your water, it's fine, it's fine' and the (C.'s) keep using it."
It was a plumber that made the gruesome discovery: AquaKleen hadn't installed the C.'s system into the proper line. The C.'s system was installed with a drain into their sewer line, which caused raw sewage to be sucked up into their pipes and mixed with what they were told was water that was fit to drink.
Caplis added, "This could be a horrific problem when you think about the health consequences."
Within a month of drinking the contaminated water, N.C. was diagnosed with Crone's disease – which his doctors claim was a direct result of his contaminated drinking water.
Caplis said that AquaKleen claimed that it was an isolated incident and that other homes had not been affected. However, before the trial was scheduled to begin, AquaKleen inspected 58 other homes in Commerce City where they had installed water softener filtration systems. Of the 58 inspections all were found to be improperly installed and 20 had the same problem the C. family did.
Caplis added, "In Colorado alone there are thousands of AquaKleen installations. People need to check to see if their drinking water is not connect to their sewer water."
South Adams Water and Sanitation sent a letter to AquaKleen stating that that a permit for installation had never been issued, and that the work they had done to date was deemed a "risk to the entire water system."
If sewage backups are large enough, according to water managers, over time the contaminants can stretch to several homes in a full city block.
South Adams demanded to know how many installations had already been made. AquaKleen first claimed to have only installed 13 units. By the time of the trial, which was six years later, that number had swollen to 150 homes in the Commerce City area.
If your health has been affected by the negligence of another party, you have grounds for a lawsuit. Contact a personal injury lawyer for help right away!