Nov 4, 2023 By Mike Jones staff Writer mjones@observer-Reporter.Com 9 min read

Ongoing water issues in southeastern Greene County have led to minor inconveniences such as multiple boil advisories over the years to major accusations in a recent lawsuit claiming wide-ranging health problems allegedly caused by poor water quality.

“It’s been going on so long. What do you have to do to get clean water this century? It feels like we’re the Flint, Michigan of Pennsylvania,” Eggers said of the Rust Belt city that is now synonymous with toxic drinking water.

In Flint, where the change of the water supply a decade ago led to treatment problems and caused lead from old pipelines to leach into the drinking water, the emergency received national attention for years as millions of dollars in federal and state aid poured in to help. But East Dunkard customers, some of whom haven’t trusted what was coming out of the spigot for a long time, were left to buy their own bottled water to drink, cook with and even give to their pets.

“It feels like we’re not being heard, like we’re not important,” Eggers said. “I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s like we’re being forgotten.”

That seemed to change Oct. 23 when Eggers and nearly a dozen other East Dunkard customers filed a lawsuit in Greene County Court of Common Pleas alleging that negligence by the water authority caused a myriad of health problems for them. However, just as that complaint was being filed in court, things were about to get even worse.

A day before in the early hours of Oct. 22, the turbidity monitor – which measures the clarity of the water – spiked inside the East Dunkard treatment plant, which should have triggered an immediate boil water advisory for the system. But the problem wasn’t discovered until 30 hours later when an automated report was sent at 9 a.m. Oct. 23 to the state Department of Environmental Protection, which discovered the high turbidity level and notified East Dunkard officials of the emergency.

When DEP inspectors got to the scene later that day, they found the filters were clogged, and the plant was unable to produce water as two of the holding tanks soon went dry. While the cause of the malfunction remains under investigation by the DEP, its inspection report dated Oct. 24 noted that EDWA had just changed chemical providers the week before, and some of the old and new chemicals were inexplicably mixed together in a bulk storage unit.

A conservation notice was eventually sent out to customers, but by Oct. 25, the system was depleted and eventually all 1,800 homes and businesses in the network were without water. Over the next three days, plant workers and the DEP scrambled to get the system up and running again as bottles and jugs of water were distributed to residents, who were without even non-potable water from their taps to perform simple chores like washing clothes.

In the aftermath of the plant failure, the DEP took “unprecedented action” and filed a joint petition Thursday with the state Commonwealth Court asking that a “receivership” be approved to immediately transfer operations of EDWA to Pennsylvania American Water Co. In the filing, DEP noted that no certified operator had been employed at EDWA to make “legally authorized” decisions at the plant since mid-September. DEP spokesperson Lauren Camarda said Friday that the agency is asking for an expedited hearing to quickly hand operations over to PAWC to “ensure ample, properly treated drinking water is available to customers.”

“It’s obviously been an ongoing issue for some time,” Camarda said.

While water is now flowing again, many residents are posting on social media that it’s foul-smelling and discolored. But for Eggers, she’s just happy someone else is finally paying attention.

“The last few years and this past week have been the worst,” Eggers said of the recent problems. “It seems like people are listening and our voices are being heard.”

Ongoing problems

During the three-day service disruption last month, Eggers filled gallon jugs with water from a rain barrel outside her Dunkard Township home in order to wash clothes and do the dishes. She also poured bottled water into the bowl for her dog, Myrtle, as she has done for the past two years after her pet suffered from pancreatitis and numerous urinary tract infections.

Eggers, 42, also has reported UTIs over the years, along with autoimmune and infertility issues that her doctors says are due to environmental factors. She and her husband, Joseph, stopped drinking their tap water in August 2021.

In the lawsuit, she and 11 other residents blame East Dunkard’s water for their health problems, along with the cost to buy bottled water they use on a daily basis. The lawsuit, filed by Somerset attorney Marc Valentine, names the authority and its predecessor, the East Dunkard Water Association, as defendants, along with its former engineering firm and several energy and chemical companies.

“We’ve been dealing with dirty water for a long, long time,” said Rose Burke, who is also a plaintiff on the lawsuit. “It has affected our lives in so many ways. You don’t even feel clean after taking a shower.”

She and her husband, William, had to get rid of their above ground pool after the water turned the liner brown. And she’s needed to replace the ice maker in multiple refrigerators over the years, prompting her to spend “tons of money” on bagged ice and bottled water. A garden that she planted was lush with regular rainfall and all but died after she watered it with her outdoor hose.

“We were kept in the dark for so long,” Burke said. “Some houses have dirtier water than others.”

The DEP has cited the water authority for violations on six separate occasions since December, according to its online database, and the agency is now going to court to enforce several orders that it claims EDWA has ignored.

The lawsuit alleges that EDWA “breached” its responsibility to monitor problems with the facility and ensure clean drinking water was piped to its customers.

“The named defendants had a duty to ensure that the water was properly treated and tested for the consumption as (potable) water,” the lawsuit states. “The defendants had a duty to operate and maintain the distribution lines and the treatment facility in accordance with law and in a manner that does not pose a risk to health and safety of the community.”

While the lawsuit is seeking unspecified monetary damages, Eggers is hoping that those in charge at EDWA are held responsible for what has happened to the community and its residents.

“I hope to accomplish getting someone held accountable for what’s been going on all of these years,” Eggers said. “Maybe getting laws changed so that these little authorities out there can’t do whatever they want with only the DEP regulating them.”

The system serves all of Dunkard and Greene townships, and portions of Cumberland, Monongahela, Perry and Whiteley townships. Neither EDWA General Manager Theresa Helton nor board solicitor Lane Turturice returned multiple phone calls seeking comment on the lawsuit and the potential change of operations.

Moving forward

The situation is beginning to attract national attention after renowned environmental activist Erin Brockovich posted a link to her Facebook page about a news story on East Dunkard’s water problems.

“Cities across America are (losing) access to safe drinking water in mass… big and small, even two Capitol cities are falling down,” Brokovich wrote on her Facebook page, which has 861,000 followers. “WHY? The failure of our leaders to (do) the right thing. Always making excuses. Mismanaging our resources and infrastructure funds. This must end… WE the PEOPLE must demand accountability.”

Locally, the Center for Coalfield Justice has been monitoring the water situation in southeastern Greene County, although it has no involvement in the lawsuit.

“Regardless of whether residents use public or private water sources, clean water is essential,” CCJ said in a written statement Friday. “We hope this issue is resolved so people who rely on the EDWA can feel confident in the quality of water it provides.”

In the short and long term, that will likely involve PAWC handling water distribution for the area. In addition to being tapped for the receivership, PAWC signed an agreement in June to purchase EDWA’s assets for $5 million and eventually run the system beginning in late 2024 or early 2025, pending state approval.

“Everyone deserves confidence in the system they pay monthly for to have clean and adequate water,” Greene County Commission Chairman Mike Belding said last week following the water emergency. “Clearly, through (the Oct. 25 shutoff) notice, they’re not getting that. And it’s not been a secret … there’s a long-term solution in place with a change in authority and board members and water supply. But that’s an 18-month or two-year process.”

Not everyone is happy with the decision to move to PAWC. Some residents said they would prefer to be hooked into Southwestern Pennsylvania Water Authority in nearby Jefferson, which they claim could be done faster and offer lower rates. While several loans and grants were secured in recent years to connect with SPWA, it’s not known whether EDWA’s board negotiated with that authority or why it ultimately selected PAWC’s offer.

“They lied more times than you could shake a stick at,” East Dunkard customer David Vukmanic said of the authority’s board regarding the change in ownership. “The people ought to feel vindicated about (the DEP petition). There are other things that have annoyed me to this point.”

Vukmanic, who also is a party on the lawsuit, was initially worried about the time it would take to change over to PAWC, but now he’s concerned about whether his already high water bills will increase even more.

“The only people who pay the price is the common people,” he said.

Burke agrees, saying she currently pays $60 per month for her EDWA bill with limited use since she and her husband don’t consume the water at their Davistown residence.

“It’s ridiculous to pay $60 for water you can’t cook with and can’t drink. You shower and it makes you itch,” Burke said. “Until you live here, you have no idea what the people here have gone through.”

Eggers, on the other hand, had been against the move to PAWC until the three-day water shutoff last month was the final straw in the ongoing saga involving EDWA.

“At this point, I’m alright with it. I’m kind of happy they’re doing this,” Eggers said of the possible transfer to PAWC. “Enough is enough.”