ארסן במים גורם להפלות $400M lawsuit

Arsenic water leads to $400M lawsuit against county Friday, October 12, 2007 MERCED COUNTY, CA — Merced County employees who worked OR work at the John Latorraca Correctional Facility are suing the county for $400 million as a result of arsenic being found in the facility's drinking water, an October 12 Modesto Bee story reported. Attorney Barry Bennett said the county failed to act after knowing the drinking water at its jail AND juvenile hall was contaminated. Bennett said employees may have consumed food made with the contaminated water. According to Bennett, county employees have gotten sick with symptoms attributed to arsenic consumption. Arsenic exceeding federal guidelines was detected in three wells in May AND August. A violation was issued to the Department of Public Works on September 24 by the Division of Environmental Health. In response, the county provided bottled water to employees AND inmates. The lawsuit alleges that county officials knew in 2004 about high arsenic levels in the facility’s water AND failed to notify employees. Mark Hendrickson, a county spokesman, said the county has “vigorously” denied the charge AND that in 2004 the wells did not exceed allowable arsenic levels, according to the story. Hendrickson said in the story, “I think it is important to note that this situation is not unique to Merced County, AND there are a number of communities throughout the San Joaquin Valley that are dealing with this naturally occurring element.” Hendrickson said the county is working on implementing a water treatment system at the correctional facility over the next six months. The jail is currently being supplied with water from a well with the least amount of arsenic. The well has an arsenic level of 13.5 parts per billion (ppb). Two other wells at the facility have arsenic levels of 45.7 ppb AND 37.8 ppb. In January 2006, the Environmental Protection Administration lowered the maximum contaminant level for arsenic in public water supplies from 50 ppb to 10 ppb.