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
Bad Water Sick Nicor workers believe their chronic illnesses
were caused by bad plumbing DONNELL COLLINS / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

An ominous cloud sits over the Nicor facility at the corner of River and Prairie streets in Aurora where several past and some present employees claim that for years the drinking water was contaminated and caused them to suffer from a variety of life- threatening illnesses. Ruben Luna’s doctor was stumped.

The Aurora resident’s teeth were falling out, he had no control over his bowels and the sharp jabs in his gut left him hunched over daily.

“You can’t be this sick,” the doctor told Luna. “You have the body of an 80-year-old and you’re 30.”

The doctor gave him pills. Nothing changed. They took out part of his stomach, removed some gallstones. But the grinding ache persisted.

At work, he was known as “The Bone Chewer,” since he went after overtime hours like a dog fighting for the last bone on the block. With that reputation, Luna didn’t want to tell people he was suffering.

So it was a long time before he found out he wasn’t alone.

At the Nicor facility in Aurora where Luna worked for 12 years, plenty of others were in pain. According to a lawsuit filed in 2004, dozens of people who worked at the Nicor building at 408 S. River St. developed liver failures, suffered persistent diarrhea and threw up every day.

Tom Schultz, a part-time martial arts instructor with two kids, had three urinary tract infections and doctors used sound waves to bombard kidney stones out of him. At night, the 40-year employee’s agony made him think about suicide.

Health nut Anna Sutton, 44, was plagued by migraine headaches and struggled with bladder control. Libby Thompson, 42, found groups of small lumps under the skin of her neck, stomach and pelvis. Health nut Anna Sutton, 44, was plagued by migraine headaches and struggled with bladder control. Libby Thompson, 42, found groups of small lumps under the skin of her neck, stomach and pelvis.

They all believe their suffering was caused by faulty plumbing that city records show could have allowed chemicals to leak into the drinking water. It’s a problem health officials believe could be responsible for hundreds of illnesses across the country every year, sickening people who drink from the water fountains in their offices, or using contaminated water to wash their food.

Bruce Brummel, a former Nicor employee, has been working for years to get the company to acknowledge what city of Aurora documents already show: Bad plumbing in the building’s break room meant employees could have been sipping water tainted with three times the legal levels of methylene chloride. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, methylene chloride can do damage to the nervous and blood systems during short exposures. Over years, experts believe it causes liver damage, cancer and destroys the digestive system.

“I just get so weak,” said Brummel. “You can’t imagine. I call it the surge. If I move my body, I can feel every bone.”

Nicor officials deny there was ever a problem at any of their facilities.

“Nicor Gas at all times has responded aggressively and thoroughly in investigating all complaints made about the drinking water in order to ensure the quality of our employees’ drinking water,” wrote Nicor spokesman Annette Martinez.

But city documents suggest a different story: Nicor was trying to fix an issue they told employees not to worry about. The situation has caught the attention of local politicians, including Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner, who questions how Nicor handled its investigation.

“I have to say, I am concerned by the question of whether the health problems suffered by Bruce Brummel and others are related to their work environment and whether the situation has been significantly investigated,” the mayor said.

“They treated us so bad,” Brummel said. “We didn’t even know. We just knew the coffee didn’t smell right.”

‘Tastes like boiler water’

For the workers in the street — the men and women installing and repairing the gas lines for Nicor — the job was a great opportunity. Although most of them had no education past high school, dedicated employees could make a sizable salary.

The street crew became a tight-knit, informal club, and their camaraderie meant it wasn’t unusual to find a handful of workers gathered in the company’s break room, sipping coffee from foam cups an hour before their shift started.

A regular part of the morning chatter was griping about the coffee. While those jokes are common at most workplaces, the brew in the Nicor break room seemed to exceed bad flavor. It was grimy, thick and smelled a little like oil, employees say.

“I think I said it first: I said this water tastes like boiler water,” said one current Nicor employee, who asked to remain anonymous. “It was a joke.”

But the comment got people thinking. Brummel says he and a co-worker traced the pipe back to its source. According to city of Aurora records, the pipe was coming straight out of the building’s boiler, a massive piece of machinery used to supply heat to the offices.

‘Quickly overwhelm the whole system’

In a typical plumbing system, water comes in from the city’s main pipes, then splits into drinking water and non-potable water used for things like fire prevention sprinklers or, in the case of Nicor, to run the boiler.

In those non-potable areas, the water mixes with various chemicals. In a safe system, any place chemicals mix with the water, safety devices called “backflow preventers” must be installed to ensure the tainted water can’t move back into the drinking supply.

Health officials believe every year hundreds of people across the nation are sickened by drinking water contaminated in plumbing that lacks backflow protection. Unlike the Nicor employees, most victims suffer short-term but severe symptoms, which they attribute to the 24-hour flu or “something they ate.” Health experts and plumbers contend holes in the state plumbing code or incomplete testing are just as likely culprits.

“It’s a little scary to realize how vulnerable the water systems are,” said Lou Allyn Bius, manager of the Division of Public Water Supplies for the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, who retired in 2005. “It’s so easy to connect something that can quickly overwhelm the whole system. The average person probably isn’t aware of it all.”

According to city documents, pipes at Nicor that were supposed to be one-way could allow water to mix with toxic chemicals from the boiler during low water pressure.

Brummel felt he might have discovered an explanation for the bad coffee — and a few other odd occurrences at the office.

The most obvious was the daily lines at the men’s rooms. Every morning, shortly after drinking coffee, the workers would rush to the bathroom. Men in their 20s and 30s describe lining up three-deep for a stall or running up two floors to make it to an upstairs bathroom before their diarrhea hit. But no one talked about it.

“Two things in life are personal: health and death,” Brummel said. “People don’t talk much about either.”

Brummel began subtly asking around — and quickly found similar stories. Otherwise healthy young men and woman were pulling over to vomit after leaving the Aurora building. Others had defecated in their pants on the job. Dozens of workers had severe weight loss, debilitating headaches and rotator cuffs that were disintegrating.

Brummel, always thin, dropped 35 pounds suddenly. His eyes sunk into his head, rashes appeared on his chest. At 35, Brummel’s joints creaked and crackled like an old man’s.

Brummel’s doctor said his symptoms appear to be consistent with chemical poisoning.

“A person who appears somewhat emaciated and has symptoms affecting virtually every organ in their system, it’s often chemically involved,” said Pauline Harding, a Winfield physician who has been treating Brummel.

Harding said we are all assaulted by toxins like mold in the garage, but it takes something extra to do real damage.

“Most of us manage to survive all those,” she said. “But if you get an assault by chemicals in your drinking water, it can be overwhelming.”

‘Poses a threat’

Brummel says he took his concerns to his immediate supervisor. He and co-workers went up the management chain, but at each step the company denied there was a problem, Brummel contends.

After months of working within the company and still unable to get help, on Oct. 14, 2003, Brummel took pictures of the company’s plumbing to Aurora’s Division of Building and Permits. According to Brummel and to city records, within 20 minutes, officials from the city of Aurora descended on Nicor’s building to investigate Brummel’s claims about the drinking water.

By all accounts, heated accusations were slung by all sides that day. It ended with Brummel — who was on sick leave at the time — being banned from Nicor property for the rest of the week.

It also resulted in an investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a federal organization that promotes safe working environments. An OSHA report started that day shows Nicor was made aware of a potentially dangerous plumbing situation in its building.

According to the OSHA report, on Oct. 14, the city of Aurora took a sample of tapwater from the Nicor plant to be tested by an independent agency. That test detected methylene chloride levels at 17.5 parts per billion — more than three times the limit of 5 parts per billion allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency, the report shows.

Methylene chloride is a colorless chemical compound that’s typically used to strip paint. In past decades, methylene chloride gas was used in Christmas lights and jukeboxes to create a bubbling effect, until health risks led companies to search for safer alternatives.

According to plumber Marty Feltes, who viewed the boiler with city inspectors on Oct. 14, methylene chloride was most likely being used to protect the pipes, slowly being injected to erode build-up from steam production.

Questions were raised regarding the test but, according to the OSHA report, a second test on Oct. 24, this time run by Nicor, showed methylene chloride levels at 16.1 parts per billion, still three times the limit allowed by the EPA. Citing the violation as “serious,” OSHA was prepared to fine the company $2,125, OSHA records show.

Later, a third test, according to OSHA records, showed methylene chloride at 0.89 parts per billion — below the legal limit of five parts per billion — and the fine was not imposed. Shortly after that Oct. 29 test, OSHA closed its investigation, saying the agency could not prove the case, although the agency did not retract its findings.

A week after Nicor got test results showing methylene chloride above legal limits, the company also received a warning letter from the city. The Oct. 21 letter, written by city of Aurora plumbing inspector Robert Thompson to Nicor’s building supervisor, said the company was in violation of the Illinois State Plumbing Code. After inspecting the boiler room, Thompson wrote that he found the drinking water was directly connected to a chemically-fed tank. “This type of connection poses a threat to the quality of potable water for both the employees in the building and the city’s water main,” Thompson’s letter said.

Thompson advised Nicor to immediately have a licensed plumber install backflow protection to stop the drinkable and dangerous water from mixing, or permanently disconnect the pipe, city records show.

However, city and company documents show after Nicor officials received the city’s letter, they continued to assure employees the water was safe while also trying to fix plumbing problems the city had deemed hazardous.

Less than a month after the city’s alert, Nicor posted a memo to employees telling them the water was safe to drink. And, on Nov. 19, 2003, the company’s vice president of human resources, in a letter to Brummel, wrote that an investigation by OSHA had determined boiler piping “was not improperly connected to the potable drinking water.” The letter went on to assert that no “violations of any safety or health regulations relating to company drinking water” were found. OSHA records appear to indicate that the spigot where workers were routinely filling up their water jugs and coffee pots was not considered drinking water by Nicor, so could not be investigated by OSHA in the same way.

Then, on Nov. 25, Aurora city records show Nicor’s area manager applied for a remodeling permit to correct a problem the company denied existed. The application notified the city that, for the cost of $1,600, Nicor would add a backflow protection device to each service entering in the building.

“We will also disconnect the existing boiler water supply,” the application added.

Without backflow protection, the building was in violation of the Illinois State Plumbing code, which has required a safeguard system since 1983. City documents show the backflow devices were finally installed by January of 2004.

Yet, for more than three years, even as workers protested outside their headquarters, the company has steadfastly denied any problems with the water. Nicor refused repeated requests for an in-person interview with The Beacon News, but issued two written statements, one through the corporate spokesman and one from the company’s legal department.

Martinez, the spokesman, said all Nicor buildings do, and have always, “operated in compliance with all applicable codes.”

“It is apparent these allegations of a hazard were found not to have merit almost two years ago,” said Jill Kelly, assistant legal counsel representing Nicor. “Accordingly, we trust that any story that is forthcoming will not inaccurately assert that any hazard existed at the facility.”

The company refused any further comment on the OSHA or city reports that showed serious plumbing issues.

‘My biggest fear’

After years of good reviews, Brummel was fired in April 2004. He believes it is because he tried to expose what he saw as a dangerous problem at Nicor’s building.

He filed grievances through his union (which were dropped, he said) and held candlelight vigils for the sick employees.

Chicago law firm Cascino Vaughan Law Offices Ltd., filed suit on behalf of Brummel and 32 other current or former Nicor employees. Partner Allen Vaughan said there could be complications with the lawsuit because some of the older workers may have been exposed to mercury while working at Nicor. The attorneys held public meetings, wrote to local politicians. After months of work, the lawyers withdrew from the case, saying the case was not economically feasible to pursue.

Since then, Brummel and other Nicor current and former employees have been working with Waukegan attorney Rick Daniels. Daniels said he is still in the investigation phase of his work, but confirmed his firm, Daniels, Long and Pinsel, is prepared to file a federal suit.

“It’s tough when the little guy takes on the big corporation but we’re going to do this,” Daniels said. “I feel confident with our case. We’re full steam ahead.”

Daniels said he is not intimidated by the cost or complexity of a suit. His only worry was that all of the plaintiffs would see the end of their efforts.

“It’s going to be a huge case, one of the biggest in Illinois history,” Daniels predicted. “It’s an absolute tragedy what happened.”

State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, an Aurora Democrat whose sister worked for Nicor, has also met with some current and former Nicor employees.

“If there aren’t laws protecting people from this, I plan to pull together some legislation,” she said. “There’s just too many coincidences surrounding Brummel and others. People need to know everyone’s life matters. In this case, we have quite a few coincidences to quite a few people in a fixed amount of time that you can’t overlook.”

But as those legal and legislative wheels start to turn, workers are still suffering, almost three years after the city inspection.

Schultz, the former karate instructor, is constantly on the toilet.

Doctors still can’t get rid of the lumps under Thompson’s skin. She left for a new job in 2004, but her lungs are so weak it’s hard for her to walk up stairs.

And Luna, 49, can’t work at the landscaping company he started after he left Nicor. “My biggest fear is that I’m really sick and my family will have to take care of me like a baby,” he said. “I told them just let me die.”