The Associated Press recently reported that a water company in Tamworth, New Hampshire knowingly delivered water to customers that was contaminated with uranium. Besides possibly causing cancer from radiation, uranium can also cause kidney toxicity.
Even more shocking, Lakes Region Water Company allegedly delivered the radioactive water during a three-week period last year from a well that the state Department of Environmental Services (DES) had ordered shut off in 2004. At that time, the company told the agency that the well had been closed, with all pipes and electrical connections severed. But three years later DES discovered the supposedly “out of service” well was still being used—and it was still loaded with uranium.
To add insult to serious injury, Lakes Region Water Company failed to properly seal its wells, which exposed local water drinkers to insects, animals, and E. coli, and left the town of Tamworth, New Hampshire without water for weeks. Residents have now filed a class action suit to get some relief from the outrage.
DES official Dave Gordon told the Concord Monitor that unlike bacteria, where just a little can make a person sick, uranium-related risks increase along with the amount ingested.
JoAnne Rainville, a nurse in Tamworth who was one of hundreds of people exposed to the poisonous water, told the AP “The water was polluted with high levels of uranium and arsenic….People right now are living under a shadow of what are the long-range effects.”