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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Peril in the pipes Backflow problems have had serious consequences in the United States. Some examples: 1933 • More than 1,700 people get sick and 98 die after faulty plumbing allows sewage to back up into a Chicago hotel’s water supply during the city’s World’s Fair.

1969 • Ninety of 97 members of the Holy Cross football team in Massachusetts contract Hepatitis A when the team drinks water from a contaminated drinking fountain on its practice field. A fire down the street had caused the pressure to drop, which allowed water in the field’s irrigation system to move into the drinking water.

1982 • Maintenance crews in Bancroft, Mich., shut down a water main to replace a valve, causing a backflow of a chemical pesticide into the water supply. The village loses all water for two days.

1984 • Backflow of water from a nursing home’s boiler in Washington burns a worker’s hands.

1985 • A valve separating pasteurized and nonpasteurized milk fails, causing a cross-contamination at a dairy in Melrose Park, Ill. Two people die and another 160,000 people suffer salmonella poisoning across the Midwest.

1989 • Low pressure in a hose that workers in Connecticut are using to clean out a tank, causes propane to flow back into the city’s main pipes. The backflow starts fires in two homes and forces thousands of people to evacuate.

1989 • Propane from a tank in Fordyce, Ark., backs into the city water supply. Three people in separate buildings are injured from explosions after flushing toilets.

1993 • It takes two months to identify that propylene glycol from a fire sprinkler system had entered the water in an Arizona water park. In the meantime, several employees report nausea and intestinal upsets.

1995 • Pesticides back up into a water distribution system when a Louisiana farmer accidentally cuts a water main while diluting herbicides. Victims file a class-action lawsuit after they suffer nausea, stomach burns, profuse sweating, diarrhea and shortness of breath.

Sources: Environmental Protection Agency and Illinois Department of Public Health