2009.05.14 – Father Sues Utility

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Father Sues Utility after Finding Home Tap Water Harboring Harmful Toxins
May 14, 2009 12:07 PM
Tags: toxic substances, water supply,harmful, lead, injury, lawyer, Outer Banks

When vacationing on the Outer Banks you may have noticed that the water seems to taste a little different than your home tap. You may have even come to expect inconsistency in the taste of your tap water. Most people solve this with a simple external filter put on their plumbing at home.
Although this usually takes care of the problem, did you know that occasionally harmful toxins can seep through to your home causing serious health issues? There have been many cases involving neglectful property owners or businesses spilling toxic substances onto nearby land. Innocently thinking that your local water utility always keeps a high standard may be naïve thinking at best as the following lawsuit illustrates.
A father of twins has filed a lawsuit against the Washington DC Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) accusing it of providing lead-tainted water that resulted in developmental problems in his children.
In the suit, filed in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, John Parkhurst of Capitol Hill is demanding $200 million in damages for the alleged poisoning.
It has left his 8-year-old twins suffering from a range of behavioral problems which adversely impact their attention, learning and executive functioning. The estimated costs of their therapy and medication are currently in the range of $30,000 to $40,000 a year.
According to the complaint, one independent expert has investigated the water contamination and WASA’s efforts to withhold the information from its customers and has called it perhaps “the largest environmental crime in U.S. history.”
The lawsuit in Washington comes shortly after researchers identified a cluster of a rare blood cancer, called polycythemia vera, in the Tamaqua area of Pennsylvania and have found a potential link between the disease and environmental pollution.
The doctors confirmed that a large number of their patients live within close proximity to areas containing hazardous waste materials coming from waste-coal power plants and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund sites.
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