Think we made that up? Not a chance! Read the full article here or catch a few highlights, or LOW lights, in this Water Testing Blog update.
The Illinois attorney general filed suit June 9 against the village of Crestwood, several officials and the village’s former certified water supply operator for allegedly using a contaminated well and knowingly providing false information about the water supply to residents and state regulators.
The nine-count complaint, filed in the Cook County Circuit Court, charges that Crestwood officials became aware in late 1985 that one of the village’s wells was contaminated with volatile organic chemicals, including vinyl chloride and dichloroethylene.
Despite this knowledge, village officials continued adding the contaminated water to the public water supply until 2007, the lawsuit says.
During this time, Crestwood officials assured residents and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency that the village’s only supply of water was Lake Michigan and water purchased from another nearby Chicago suburb, the complaint says. ( source )
We feel this article should give people MORE than enough reason to keep a watchful eye on the quality of their drinking water. It saddens all of us at Water Testing Blog to think that government officials would commit such crimes against the very people that elected them, but power and greed can can make people do a lot of very bad things.
You can easily keep tabs on your local water authority by calling them up and asking for a copy of the most recent water quality report. To verify the accuracy of the report’s contents in a simple manner you can use a kit like such as the WaterSafe Drinking Water Test Kit or the Water Quality Test Kit from Industrial Test Systems.
Please note, though, that if you suspect a serious or potentially life-threatening problem with your water at ANY time you should have a thorough water analysis performed by a certified water testing laboratory.