The city of Garland has sent out a warning after they said people have posed as city inspectors as part of a water scam that preys on Hispanic and elderly people in east Garland and Mesquite.
Juanita Ramos and her husband said a water filter that was installed in their new home cost nearly $7,600.
“I feel like these people lied to me,” Ramos said.
The couple said a man claiming to work for the city of Garland visited their home to sell them the filter. They said he then scared them into the purchase through pictures of rats in a water line and a fake test of the couple’s water from their sink.
“The water turned black and he come show it to me,” Ramos said. “And he said, ‘You want to drink this water for your family? This is the water from the city.”
The man warned her the tap water was dangerous.
“He said later, ‘You are going to have cancer or be sick from your kidneys,’” Ramos said.
Garland officials warned that the phony inspectors are tricking residents into paying for expensive water filters they don’t need.
“He had to have some chemical to mix it with or the water would have stayed clear,” said Jack May, Garland Water Utilites Department. “There’s not a thing wrong with the city water.”
Maricela Pacheco and her family said they found that out too late.
They had the same water filter installed when they moved in next door to the Ramos couple.
“He said he represented the city and told us the water was dirty,” Pacheco said.
The families must pay $126 with an 18 percent interest rate for five years to pay for the filters.
While the two families are trying to get their money back, the city said they have an idea who the fake inspectors are and may take legal action.
Source and more info: wfaa
A Pennsville man filed suit in state Superior Court, seeking a court order requiring DuPont to install a water filtration system for customers of the Pennsville Water Department and the Penns Grove Water Supply Co.
The class-action suit, filed by Donald Coles, also seeks medical testing for residents.
It is the second suit since April to allege that DuPont’s Chambers Works plant contaminated the water supplies with PFOA, a chemical used in the manufacture of Teflon.
A federal science panel has called PFOA a likely carcinogen.
The suit noted that DuPont provided bottled water to residents around a plant in West Virginia where PFOA contamination occurred and agreed to pay for water treatment systems.
DuPont disputes claims that PFOA causes health problems and has said that levels found in local water supplies “fall well below any regulatory guidance.”
“Tap water is perfectly safe.” That quote could have come from any water association in Canada or the United States, or from any university that has tested the quality of tap water.
Indeed, study after study has demonstrated that tap water is just as safe as bottled or filtered water, and that many people can’t tell the difference.
But the quote comes from a different, and surprising, source: It’s found on the website of Brita Worldwide, the manufacturer of water filters.
The source is surprising given Brita’s latest television commercial, which shows a woman in a kitchen with a glass of water on the table. The woman leaves, a toilet flushes and the water in the glass drains away. As the woman re-enters the kitchen, the glass refills, much as a toilet does.
An announcer then says the water used for flushing is the same as that used for drinking, and asks “Don’t you deserve a better quality to drink?”
Needless to say, the commercial has raised the ire of officials at the Greater Vancouver Regional District and Canadian and American water utility associations because, they say, it undermines confidence in the safety of tap water.
Consequently, the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association, the American Water Works Association and Vancouver Coastal Health have written letters to Brita asking for an apology and withdrawal of the commercial.
In response to the complaints, Brita did add text to the commercial, which reads: “Substances removed [by Brita filters] may not be in all users’ water.”
Source and more info: canada
