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:
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Denise Crosby Editorial I’ll never forget that afternoon here in the newsroom.

Close to a dozen men, all ages, all ethnicities, all former or present NICOR employees, sitting around the conference table with a handful of curious reporters and editors.

I remember the dejected looks on our guests’ faces. The frustration in their voices.

I remember quite clearly when one of them, Ruben Luna, pulled up his shirt to show the scars that criss-crossed his chest.

But the most unforgettable part of that whole day were all those bathroom breaks.

In the course of that two-hour interview, one after another, these proud, damaged men would politely ask if they could use the washroom.

We all noticed it. At first, no one made any comments.

Then, it got to be too obvious. Almost embarrassing.

Someone finally made a joke and everyone laughed.

Only their stories were not so funny.

What they had to tell us was shocking. Sad. Similar. Very, very similar.

They worked their blue-collar NICOR jobs faithfully and appreciatively. They began getting sick. They traced the problem back to a coffee maker, to an old boiler and to a system that allowed bad stuff to enter their drinking water.

Years of drinking contaminated water, they believe, has all but destroyed their digestive tracts. Messed up their immune systems. Consumed their lives.

Yet nobody was listening to them.

Not OSHA. Not the Attorney Generals’ Office.

Certainly not NICOR, the company they say not only tried to deny any wrongdoing, but turned its back on them in their most desperate hours.

On that day in the newsroom, almost two years ago, we did listen. And we began looking into their complaints. It was not an easy task. We trekked into Chicago and spent an afternoon with Allen Vaughan, an attorney handling the case, only to have him eventually drop it because this kind of lawsuit is simply not cost-effective. It’s time-consuming, for one thing, and he knew it would be difficult proving what illnesses were caused by water and what was caused by mercury contamination.

Then, the story lost momentum when one of the two-man reporting team assigned to the investigation took on an editor’s role here in the newsroom. A short time later, the other left for a job at another paper.

But the former Nicor employees would not let the story drop. They truly believed the local paper was their only hope in getting this story to the public. We believed so, too.

Of course, even early on we knew this story was much bigger than a tale about a small group of sick Nicor workers. It’s about the water we consume and faulty systems that can put us all at risk. That’s why it’s important this story be told. That’s why it’s important we all listen. And learn.