Home FEATURE STORY Ruben Luna Bruce Brummel Libby Thompson Bill Sinn Dave Erickson Tom Schultz Anna Sutton Anonymous Dana Weese Bill Fleming Update:Nicor denies contamination issue again Denise CrosbyDenise Crosby weighs in. Find out more. The Documents View Gallery Download .pdfs The Culprit? Workers at the Nicor plant in Aurora believe methylene chloride was leaking into drinking water at the plant How can your water go bad ? Without a fairly simple device, it’s easy for polluted water to back up into your shower. Download the page Read More Peril in the pipes Backflow problems have had serious consequences in the United States. Find out more. Additional Links Nicor Co. Information via Google Nicor Corporate Homepage OSHA Homepage Credits Story by:
Matt Hanley Photos by:
Donnell Collins
Anna Sutton, 45 Employee: 1990 - 1991
Debilitating illnesses follow her from NICOR. Anna Sutton worked in the office and wants Nicor to pay her insurance. “I think what this has done to all of us, it has bonded us.” As office manager at Nicor from 1990 to 1991, Anna Sutton never came into contact with the chemicals the field workers handled. She dealt with time cards and pads of papers, not compounds and chemicals.

But she drank plenty of the water at the company's Aurora building on River Street.

When she started, Sutton was 29 and a workout junkie. Many days, she came to work with a leotard under her dress so she could head straight to the gym. And perched on the corner of her desk was a two-liter jug she constantly refilled.

"I used to drink a ton of water, that was my thing," she said.

She left Nicor for a health-related reason: She had to have a lump removed from her breast, and it wasn't until years later that she started to trace many of her other health problems to working at Nicor.

"I went from this real vivacious person to having these aches and pains that were excruciating," she said. Over the past 10 years, she's been plagued by migraines, persistent irritable bowel syndrome and a fatigue that leaves her in a constant fog.

"Not that these things were going to kill me, but they're all debilitating," she says. "It takes from you."

For years, the source of her illness was a mystery. But in May of 2004, she ran into Bruce Brummel, another ailing Nicor employee who told her about the dozens of workers with similar health troubles. For Sutton, her body's deterioration finally made sense. She believes contaminated water she chugged at Nicor passed pollution to her body.

"If I had to stand before God, I would say this happened to us," she said. "It all makes sense. There's no doubt in my mind."

But like most of the former and current Nicor employees, Sutton doesn't know where to turn. She feels strongly someone should pay her health insurance, but doesn't have the finances or expertise to hire lawyers.

For the first time in her life, Sutton says she's truly angry.

"If one person in management knew about this, I'm appalled," she said.