Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
This episode of Swindled may contain graphic descriptions or audio recordings of disturbing events which may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. It's that time of year, Washington County, perfect way, Washington County Fair. The laughter, the learning, the music, the magic, bring your family, Washington County Fair.
The Washington County Fair is one of the year's most anticipated events for some residents in Greenwich, New York and surrounding rural areas. For one week, hundreds of vendors travel to the fairgrounds to showcase and sell their animals, tractors, and fried foods on a stick. It's the largest agricultural fair in New York and gets bigger with each iteration. Thousands of people attend every year. For many, the Washington County Fair has become a family tradition.
That was the case for Wayne Aldrich, who grew up in a neighboring town. Wayne's parents took him to the fair every year as a child, and he had cherished the experience. He wanted to do the same for his two daughters, Kaylee and Rachel, who in the summer of 1999 were two and three years old, respectively. On Saturday, August 28th, the Aldriches loaded into the family automobile and drove the 30 minutes from Clifton Park to Greenwich, located between the Hudson River and Vermont border.
There, the family rode some carnival rides, ate some snacks, drank some water, and admired some livestock before returning home a few hours later. The fair was just like he had remembered it, Mr. Aldrich claimed. A good time was had by all, but the good times ended with the weekend. By Monday, two-year-old Kaylee had a persistent headache and a fever, while three-year-old Rachel battled diarrhea and fatigue.
By Wednesday, after showing no signs of improvement, both daughters were admitted to Ellis Hospital in Schenectady. It was probably just food poisoning, the doctors told their parents. They said that in three or four days, the little girls would be as good as new. That was partly true. Kaylee began to show signs of improvement, despite the blood in her stool. Rachel, on the other hand, was quote, "...falling apart."
Wayne Aldrich and his wife Lori told the New York Times that their three-year-old daughter had spent Wednesday night and Thursday morning on the toilet. They said she was so exhausted they had to take turns propping her up. Rachel was too weak to walk. She could barely talk. She was reportedly hallucinating monsters under her hospital bed. But the real panic set in on Thursday night when the doctors received some new results.
Both girls had tested positive for Escherichia coli or E. coli, O157H7, a dangerous pathogen that can cause serious illness, especially in vulnerable populations such as the elderly or children under 5 years old. Human infection from E. coli occurs primarily through the ingestion of bovine fecal material, usually transmitted through food and drink and petting zoos, all accessible at a county fair.
"I was so scared that I could vomit," Wayne Aldrich told the Times. He could tell that even the doctors were concerned. "There's not much that can be done for an E. coli patient," they told him, "other than treating the symptoms." Antibiotics make the infection worse, and diarrhea meds prevent the body from relieving itself of the toxins. Sometimes dialysis and transfusions are used to cleanse the blood, but only in the most severe cases. Rachel Aldrich was one of those most severe cases.
That Friday, after a doctor at Ellis Hospital led a prayer at Rachel's bedside, she was transferred to the region's only pediatric intensive care unit at the Albany Medical Center. Doctors there tried to draw blood from Rachel's arms, hands, legs, and feet, but were unable due to her dangerously low blood pressure. Rachel's veins were too shriveled and dry.
Lori Aldrich told the New York Times that she sat by her daughter's side while the doctors scurried around. She said that Rachel, during infrequent bouts of lucidity, asked about her sister, saying, "Take me out to the ball game," and talked about honeybees. The doctors told Rachel's parents that she needed emergency dialysis or death was inevitable. The only problem was that her blood pressure was so low that there was a chance the procedure could kill her.
But there was no other option. Family and friends gathered around to wish Rachel good luck. The poor little girl was almost unrecognizable at this point. Despite incessant diarrhea, Rachel's body was bloated because she could not urinate. One of the few signs of life was the bit of blood that trickled out of her nose. But Rachel Aldrich fought. She survived the dialysis treatment. But the E. coli liquefied her brain. By Saturday morning, Rachel was completely unresponsive.
She wouldn't even blink when air was blown into her eyes. Saturday afternoon, the Aldrich family said goodbye to Rachel. They washed her body and shampooed her hair and styled it with purple clips. They took prints of her hands and feet for a memory book and kept a lock of her hair. Kaylee was brought in to see her older sister for the last time. And then extended family and friends were invited in to sing "I Am A Child Of God", Rachel's favorite song. The life support machines were turned off.
Lori Aldrich held Rachel in her arms and rocked her daughter to eternal sleep. Wayne Aldrich told the New York Times that he often dreams of Rachel and that Saturday morning in 1999 when they went to the fair. The memories are pleasant, but in his dream Wayne says that at the last minute he always decides not to go. Today she was going to be four and she wanted a little mermaid bike and now I don't even want to see those things because it hurts so much.
Three-year-old Rachel Aldrich died on September 4th, 1999 from E. coli, exactly one week after she and her family attended the Washington County Fair. That same night, Ernest Wester, a 79-year-old retired truck mechanic from Gansevoort and fellow Washington County Fair attendee, asked his daughter, Trina, to take him to the local veterans hospital. Ernest had spent all of Saturday evening hemorrhaging liquids. He was worried about the blood.
Upon arrival, Trina said her father fell asleep after she kissed him goodbye. When she returned to check on him eight hours later, she said that Ernest no longer remembered his name. Doctors tried to keep Ernest Wester alive for several more days, but things looked bleak. There was a small ray of hope when he squeezed the hand of his wife of 58 years, but by Thursday, Ernest was completely brain dead. They shut off the machines.
Ernest's daughter told the New York Times that for the first time in days, her father's eyes suddenly opened when he was taken off life support. "It was really beautiful," Trina said. "I looked into his eyes and told him everyone was here with him." Ernest Wester died on September 9, 1999. He was the second person who had attended the Washington County Fair to die from an E. coli infection.
health officials worried that more were on the way. Today, investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and the New York State Health Department combing a county fairgrounds, searching for clues to one of the largest outbreaks in history of deadly E. coli bacteria. At least 497 suspected cases so far, either people who attended the fair or others who came in contact with them. 51 people being treated tonight at area hospitals.
By September 15, 1999, more than 1,000 people across 14 different New York counties reported E. coli-related symptoms. At least 71 of them had been hospitalized. All of them had attended the Washington County Fair. For many families now, the fair, once a happy ritual at the end of the summer, is now a nightmare.
An environmental investigation of the fairgrounds determined that the E. coli outbreak originated at well number 6, a 20-foot water well situated 83 feet from a cattle shed that housed 100 cows during the fair week. Investigators speculated that the heavy rains on Thursday, August 26 had washed cow manure into that well.
The water was then pumped and supplied to several vendors, including the Argyle Volunteer Fire Department, at whose booth Wayne Aldridge had purchased water for Rachel and Kaylee. I paid 25 cents to put my daughter to death, Mr. Aldridge told the New York Times. It could be the lemonade, could be the lemonade and the soda and the tap water, could be the iced tea, of course there's the ice to look at.
Three weeks after the fair ended, investigators confirmed their theory partially, but the cattle barn was not the obvious culprit, though it could not be ruled out entirely. A red fluorescent dye used to track the seepage was flushed down a hole in the manure storage area of the shed and was never detected in the water pumped from well number 6. The 4H dormitory less than 40 feet from the well was a different story.
The green dye flushed down the toilet of the dorm seeped into the well hours later. Investigators surmised that the cattle manure on the boots and clothing of dozens of 4-H members had washed down the shower drains of the dorm and entered the well. It was the most likely explanation for the largest waterborne E. coli outbreak in North American history. But who was to blame? New York state health officials found no evidence that the organizers of the fair had violated any regulations.
The fairgrounds were only open 42 days each year and were not held to the same standards as a public water utility. New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Antonio Novella described the outbreak as an act of God. No criminal charges were ever filed.
However, in 2003, a class action lawsuit against the Washington County Fair resulted in a $4 million settlement for 122 victims of the E. coli outbreak, including the families of Rachel Aldrich and Ernest Wester. The payments ranged from $3,500 to $250,000, depending on the severity of injuries. A third was taken off the top to pay the attorney fees.
To prevent similar outbreaks from occurring in the future, New York State issued new regulations for water at agricultural fairs, including daily testing and disinfection and evaluation by a professional engineer. The Washington County Fair was in full compliance a year later.
We have taken the necessary steps to ensure that this drinking water supply is clean and safe, Dr. Novello said. I will be attending the fair to see for myself the many improvements that have been made to ensure that last year's tragedy never happens again.
Less than a year later, the E. coli outbreak at the Washington County Fair would become the second largest waterborne E. coli outbreak in North American history, after the water source of a small township in Ontario, Canada became contaminated due to unprecedented rainfall and incompetence, an entirely preventable tragedy. And as always, the cover-up is worse than the crime on this episode of Swindled.
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It's a community like many in rural Ontario. The kind of place where people feel the environment is, if not pure, at least not contaminated, but no longer. It had been a stormy spring in Walkerton in the year 2000. From May 8th to May 12th, more than 134 millimeters of rain doused the small Ontario community, nestled in the Rolling Green Hills, 180 kilometers northwest of Toronto.
Besides the minor flooding of the town's abundant farmlands, nothing was out of the ordinary. The local fishermen and canoers welcomed the extra water. At the time, none of Walkerton's 5,000 residents realized there would be unforeseen consequences, but they would soon be made aware. About a week after the torrential downpours, on Wednesday, May 17, 2000, an unusually large number of children were absent from school with flu-like symptoms.
The next day, even more students were sick, and others were sent home. By Friday, May 19th, residents at a retirement home in a long-term care facility in Walkerton had developed stomach cramps, diarrhea, and vomiting. Local health officials grew concerned that the outbreak could be more severe than widespread gastroenteritis.
A pediatrician in Owen Sound, a city about an hour north of Walkerton, contacted the Bruce Gray Owen Sound Health Unit to report the numerous instances of the mysterious illness. Laboratory testing completed on Saturday, May 20th revealed that on a presumptive basis, E. coli O157 was present in at least one fecal sample obtained from a patient at the Owen Sound Hospital.
It was too early to tell for sure, but every medical facility in Bruce County and Gray County had admitted dozens of patients with similar symptoms. Something was definitely wrong. It's actually, I'm really worried just about a lot of the children in the public schools and that. And yes, it's very bad. The BGOS Health Unit launched an investigation and started with Walkerton's Public Utilities Commission.
The health inspector spoke to Stan Cable, the manager of Walkerton's PUC, to obtain information about the town's water system. Stan Cable, who had just returned from vacation a few days prior, informed the health unit that chlorination residuals were currently present in the distribution system, evidence enough that Walkerton's water was, quote, "...okay."
The health unit, taking Walkerton PUC at its word, relayed the comforting message to the concerned callers. "The water in Walkerton is safe," they told them. "Go ahead. Bottoms up." That same day, 40 additional people reported to the hospital with bloody diarrhea. And despite his assurances, Stan Cable decided to flush the town's water system and increase chlorination anyway as a precautionary measure.
Later that afternoon, Ontario's Ministry of the Environment received an anonymous tip from an employee of the Walkerton PUC who noticed the water flushing from the fire hydrants.
The tipster, aware of the recent health crisis, warned of a potential issue with the town's water supply. He informed the MOE that the PUC had failed water quality tests at a construction site just days earlier. To what degree of detail and specificity, the tipster could not say. This time, a staff member from the Ministry of the Environment Spill Action Center contacted Stan Cable at the Walkerton PUC.
This time it was to ask about the adverse test results from the construction project the whistleblower had reported. Mr. Cable acknowledged the incident but claimed it was just an odd, one-off sample. The flushing of the system was just a precaution, he reiterated. The water in Walkerton is fine. Again, he assured.
Unconvinced, the Ministry of the Environment began its own investigation of the Walkerton water system, while the BGOSHU collected samples from more than 20 different locations.
As a precaution, on Sunday, May 21, 2000, four days after symptoms first arose, the health unit finally issued a boil water advisory. Again, the Bruce Gray Owns South Health Unit is asking all Walkerton residents to boil water before being used for drinking and cooking. Unfortunately, many of the residents in Walkerton never heard those initial advisories, which were broadcast only on the AM and FM radio stations at hourly intervals beginning at 1.30 p.m.
Local television stations were never alerted. Paper notifications were never distributed. As a result, many residents continued consuming the water, trying to stay hydrated, thinking they were sick with the flu. By then, the hospital in Walkerton alone had received more than 270 calls from symptomatic people, and a child had been airlifted to London, Ontario for emergency medical attention.
Most of them are complaining of abdominal cramps and diarrhea. The diarrhea may or may not have blood in it as well. The outbreak was getting worse. The numbers were alarming. Yet many in the area, including health, environmental, and political authorities, did not have a clue. By Sunday evening, it became apparent through patient testing that it was indeed an E. coli contamination ripping through the community.
Still, few were aware of the dangers that that presented. You just can't imagine it. I never heard of people dying from tap water before, so I just thought, oh, well, I guess we're going to, like being in Mexico or something, you know, we're going to get the runs or something. Well, we'd had the runs on the weekend and the bloody diarrhea and everything, but I just snuffed it off as something we ate or something and I felt okay, so I came to work and I thought, well, it's no big deal. But then, you know, when they started saying that, then we started getting concerned about, well, maybe we've hurt ourselves here.
Furthermore, investigators had not yet identified the definitive source of the contamination. The only commonality among the patients is that they lived or had visited Walkerton, Ontario within a narrow window of time shortly after the rainstorms. There was no distribution pattern. There was no common activity. There was no pinpoint location, such as a county fair. It was a widespread issue, like the bacteria had been pumped into every home in the county.
The presumptuous conclusion was that Walkerton's water system played a significant role in the contamination, despite assurances from those who operated the water system that it had not.
The London Regional Public Health Laboratory confirmed that conclusion after the Victoria Day weekend on May 23, 2000. The samples collected at various locations around Walkerton by the Health Unit tested positive for both E. coli and fecal coliform bacteria. The water was the source, everybody learned, the day after the first person died.
It is a strain of the E. coli bacteria, number 0157. It has polluted the town's drinking water and affected hundreds of people.
That morning, Dr. Murray McQuigg, Walkerton's medical officer of health, appeared on CBC Radio to explain more. We were reassured that the water was safe on Friday and Saturday by the local PUC. But on Sunday, we had a positive culture for E. coli 0157, a dangerous bacteria. And to be prudent, we decided to issue a boiled water advisory to the people of Walkerton telling them not to drink the water.
Even though you'd been told the water was safe? That's correct, because it made no sense. Dr. McQuick still could not answer how the E. coli had made its way into the water supply. He referred to the PUC and the municipality of Walkerton. That's their responsibility, he said, and the Ministry of the Environment is their overseer. We know clearly, though, that there was a breach in the Walkerton water system that allowed bacteria to get into the system.
How seriously ill are we talking about? What's happening? Dehydration? We have news that perhaps one of the infants may not survive. Oh, really? Yes, really. That infant did not survive the day. Neither did Lenore Al, a retired library worker, nor did Edith Pearson, a grandmother of 13. All three died as a result of complications from an E. coli infection. Many others were on the brink.
One resident recalled the horror to the CBC quote: On Wednesday, May 24, 2000, Dr. McQuigg led a press conference at the Walkerton Hospital to alert the community about the E. coli outbreak and the contaminated water.
The press conference marked the first time the public had received a reliable report about the threat, an entire week after symptoms were first reported. All the schools in Walkerton closed, most of the businesses shuttered, and it stayed that way for days, which felt like months, which felt like years.
Our community was falling apart. We had people who were seriously ill. We had people who had in fact died. We had businesses that were closed. The water was undrinkable. Everything that could be put into turmoil here absolutely was. Behind closed doors, officials were demanding answers. Dr. McQuigg was right. The water system was the responsibility of the Walkerton PUC. How could this have happened?
Stan Cable was back in the spotlight. An environmental officer at the Ministry of the Environment requested and obtained documentation from the PUC manager regarding well testing, water distribution, and pumping history. Those documents included positive E. coli test results of water samples taken on May 15th, two days before the initial outbreak. Stan Cable had been aware the water was contaminated the entire time, but never divulged that information in previous calls.
It wasn't until the Assistant Director of Health Protection at the Health Unit called to alert the PUC manager of the latest positive tests that Cable conceded that knowledge. He realized his attempt to flush and clean the system had failed. His cover was blown. This new development led to a combative council meeting where Dr. McQuigg urged Stan Cable to come clean and demanded Walkerton Mayor David Thompson to tell the public what he knew.
At a private meeting with the mayor and council later that afternoon, Cable claimed the chlorinator at well 7 had not been functioning properly. In reality, the chlorinator at well 7, which dispenses chlorine to sanitize the water, had not been functioning at all for days. Ultimately, the meeting members developed an action plan to remediate the contamination.
and an engineering consulting firm was chosen to take the lead. There was no need to alarm the public further, they decided. No reason to declare a state of emergency. This is Mayor Thompson addressing the public. We will not turn the water on until we are certain that it is potable and that it is excellent water and I'm quite sure if that takes a week it will be a week if it takes two weeks it will be two weeks.
The following morning, Dr. Murray McQuigg appeared on CBC radio again. He claimed he could no longer wait for the Ministry of the Environment's investigation to complete. Lives were in danger. He needed to spill the beans. Okie doke. And this is a statement I would much prefer not to have made.
What Dr. McQuig said next stunned the country.
He explained how the Bruce Gray Owen Sound Health Unit had been misled, how on more than one occasion, the Walkerton Public Utilities Commission had told them that the water system was safe and secure, when the recently uncovered test results from May 15th proved they knew it wasn't. McQuigge promised that the health unit had been doing everything it could with the information it was given, but the Walkerton PUC's lies and omissions hampered the response, which led to lost time and lost lives.
McQuig explained that the details and explanations of what exactly happened were still a bit murky. But thanks to the recent discovery of an inoperable chlorinator, the probable cause of the Walkerton water tragedy was no longer a mystery. I said in introducing you, Dr. McQuig, that it's no longer, given what you've just told us, and we were led to expect, it's no longer a matter of how many more will die, but whether anybody had to die. Would you comment on that?
Well, all I can tell you is the basis of good public health is a clean and safe water system. It's the fundamental premise of good public health in this country. There are very strict guidelines on how a water system should be operated. People have died and people may die yet. I'm saddened by that because I think this could have been prevented. Support for Swindled comes from Simply Safe.
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Good evening. Most Canadians take safe drinking water for granted, but they don't do that anymore in Walkerton, Ontario. It's a community of 5,000 people not far from Owen Sound. Their drinking water has been contaminated by a strain of E. coli bacteria, and it's proved deadly. So far, it's killed at least four people and left hundreds of others sick, some critically. Medical officials are calling this the worst outbreak of E. coli in Canadian history.
As the second week of the crisis came to an end, in addition to widespread illness, the residents of Walkerton were struggling with the psychological toll of it all. They felt like the lepers of their province. It seems as if the gawking media were stationed on every corner. Neighboring towns sent care packages and pity, but usually kept a safe distance.
The Premier of Ontario, Mike Harris, did not help ease the residents' fears, concerns or anger when he visited Walkerton on Friday, May 26, 2000. He spoke to a crowd of reporters and townspeople and almost immediately began slinging mud at the previous administration. Harris claimed he had inherited a mess from the New Democratic Party and denied that his Conservative Party's recent cutbacks compromised water standards.
According to Premier Harris, traditional regulations and processes had remained in place. Human error was to blame. There has been human error. The procedures that were supposed to be followed were not followed. And we want to know why and we want to make sure that they are in the future. Premier Harris also pointed this finger at the town of Walkerton itself. He alleged that the local government had never applied for funding to improve its water system when it had the chance. But that allegation was not true.
Since 1994, Walkerton had applied and received more than $400,000 in funding for infrastructure improvements from three different levels of government. My staff had given me the wrong information. Mike Harris later claimed in his apology to the town: "The Premier of Ontario apologized today to the people of Walkerton for suggesting the town could have done more to protect its water supply.
And I just apologize to you and to the people of Ontario and of course to Walkerton for any confusion over that. The day after Premier Harris' visit to Walkerton, it was reported that the president of a private water testing laboratory had come forward with proof that his firm had found evidence of coliform bacteria in the town's water back in January, months before the outbreak.
He said his company alerted the Ontario Ministry of the Environment about the adverse results on five different occasions, but never received a response. By the end of May, 2,300 people, almost half of Walkerton's population, had fallen ill because of the dangerous bacteria in the town's water supply. That week, a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of 1,000 victims, who alleged that local officials had failed in their duties.
A full public inquiry was also demanded by a newly formed grassroots organization brilliantly named the Concerned Walkerton Citizens. The group wanted a complete investigation into all aspects, factors, and events that led up to the tragedy so that it would never happen again.
The same day that the public inquiry was announced, May 30th, 2000, two more people lost their lives.
In other news tonight, the outbreak of E. coli in Walkerton, Ontario has claimed another life, an elderly person, the sixth victim to die. That word comes on the same day a man at the centre of the crisis made his first public appearance. His name's Stan Cable. He was in charge of the town's water, and he's accused of not telling anyone it was contaminated.
Stan Cable, the general manager of Walkerton's Public Utilities Commission, appeared outside the Trinity Lutheran Church before a private prayer meeting but offered no comment. Instead, Cable's lawyer spoke for him and tried to clear his good name. He is a man who is suffering a great deal along with many others. He has been devastated with the loss of lives and suggestions that he or anyone else is to blame.
The residents would hear from the man himself soon enough during the public inquiry. Stan Cable was scheduled to testify, as were 113 other witnesses, including victims and their families, civil servants, local officials, and even the Premier. All other investigations, including criminal ones, were put on hold until the inquiry concluded with the delivery of Associate Chief Justice Dennis O'Connor's full report.
The inquiry, known as the Walkerton Commission, formally began in October 2000 and spanned nine months. Some of the most notable testimony came from Frank Cable, Stan's brother and co-worker at the PUC. On December 7, 2000, the day after the water in Walkerton had finally been declared safe to drink, Frank Cable told the court that he had no formal training in his position as the town's water foreman.
Frank, like his brother, had been working at the Walkerton PUC since the 1970s since they were teenagers. They had learned on the job together. Both of them had been promoted and grandfathered in. By the time Frank Cable was on the stand, the Bruce Gray Owen Sound Health Unit had announced that they believed manure used to fertilize crops had washed into well number 5, which had been built without provincial approval, 80 meters away from the edge of a field.
The farmers were not at fault. The well was shallow and vulnerable to pollution. Everyone involved knew that from day one. A ticking time bomb since 1978. This well was an accident waiting to happen since 1978. We got seven inches of rain on May 12th of 2000. If we had had that seven inches of rain in 1988, we would have had the tragedy then. It was just a matter of time.
Frank Cable's duty was to perform the routine daily check of the operating wells, including well number 5, a job which he had obviously failed to do the weekend before the outbreak. The lack of chlorine residuals would have been a giant red flag that the system was contaminated, a missed opportunity to prevent the entire tragedy. In fact, according to Frank, it was routine procedure to not even check the chlorine levels at the wells at all.
He and Stan would just make fictitious entries on the daily operating sheets instead. Nor would they bother to travel to collect samples for the required microbiological testing. Often they would fill the jars with water from the faucets of the PUC workshop, where, Frank testified, there was always beer in the fridge. The samples would be purposely mislabeled as if they had been retrieved from different points of origin. Nobody would ever find out. Walkerton water was pristine,
"We were always busy," Frank Cable told the court. But the Cable brothers were not too busy to forge documents when the Ministry of the Environment began poking around after the E. coli surfaced. Frank admitted that his brother Stan instructed him to "clean up the daily operating sheet for well number seven" when the investigators requested the logs. Stan did not want the data to reflect that the well had been operating unchlorinated for days. It would look better to the MOE, Frank testified.
Did you know at the time that this well was being operated without a chlorinator? Yes, sir. Why was it permitted to operate without a chlorinator? We always figured we'd had good quality water and chlorination was just a...
Since 1990, the MOE had warned Walkerton multiple times about its inadequate sampling and chlorination practices. Somehow the town was always able to remove itself from the list of non-compliant municipalities after assurances to adhere. Best practices at the Walkerton PUC were nothing more than lip service, even before the Cable brothers. Nothing ever improved.
Though his incompetence and ignorance played a significant role in Walkerton's situation, Frank Cable had no part in failing to disclose the May 15 results to the Health Unit. Stan acted on his own to conceal the broken chlorinator, and he admitted as much when it was his turn to talk. Words cannot begin to express how sorry I am and how bad I feel about the events leading up to and including the last seven months. I accept responsibility for my actions.
On December 19, 2000, after being evaluated by a psychiatrist, Stan Cable took the stand at the Walkerton Commission.
Over the course of three days, he somberly admitted to faking tests and falsifying reports. Why did that happen? Why did that occur? Complacency. Stan admitted that he should not have been the manager of the PUC. And why not? I didn't have enough educational background or experience. And he admitted that ultimately, he was the one to blame. Who is responsible for this?
I'm responsible. Stan Cable claimed he was distracted and making mistakes at the time. He said he did not realize the gravity of the situation. Like his brother, Stan had not been trained in water contaminations or microbiological testing. He pointed to the eight previous positive tests for E. coli in the mid-90s for his lax approach. Back then, they had never changed their methods. The water in Walkerton had always found a way.
The last person to testify at the Walkerton Commission was Premier Mike Harris, who was grilled on his administration's substantial budget cuts in 1996. Under Premier Harris' watch, the inquiry's lawyers claimed that the MOE lacked the resources and staff to monitor water systems like Walkerton's properly. Harris' cutbacks were introduced despite warnings from senior government officials that it would increase risk to the environment and human health.
the cabinet approved the reductions anyway. Most of the questions dealt with cuts brought in by Harris' Conservative government. Elected on a platform called the Common Sense Revolution, Harris promised to reduce the size of government, and he did just that. The budget for the Ministry of the Environment was slashed almost in half in the first three years of the Premier's term. But Harris told the inquiry, at no time did he ever think those cuts would jeopardize the public safety of Ontarians. Had I...
Premier Harris was also questioned about his administration's decision to privatize water testing in Ontario.
Those private labs were not required to alert public health officials when problems were found, so they usually didn't. But even in hindsight, Premier Harris claimed he would not have done anything differently, but added, as head of the government, I'm accountable. Walkerton was a wake-up call for all of us, including our government, including other governments, who, if you know, subsequently made a number of changes and a number of regulatory changes.
changes and in hindsight there are a lot of things that people can say but clearly we did make a number of changes. In his closing arguments on August 22, 2001 Stan Cable's lawyer Bill Trudell told the inquiry quote the blame game has got to stop he argued that several events contributed to the Walkerton tragedy there was no reason for Stan and Frank Cable to shoulder all the blame
Associate Chief Justice Dennis O'Connor echoed that sentiment in his two-part report published in January 2002. Part one of the Walkerton report described the events and series of failures in the community, both human and systemic, that led to the contamination of the water supply.
Justice O'Connor concluded that the tragedy could have been prevented had Stan Cable properly monitored chlorine levels and had the Ontario government not cut funding to the Ministry of the Environment, who failed in their role as regulators. O'Connor also wrote that evidence showed that the commissioners of Walkerton's Public Utilities Commission concerned themselves primarily with the financial side of the PUC's operations and had very little knowledge about matters relating to water safety and the operation of the system.
As a result, and inappropriately, they relied almost totally on Stan Cable in those areas, someone who was self-admittedly ill-prepared for the job. Part 2 of the Walkerton Report laid out 99 comprehensive recommendations based on the circumstances of the outbreak, among them a push for increased training and certification of operators and more competent enforcement.
The estimated one-time cost of implementation ranged from $99 million to $280 million. But soon after the report was published, Ontario adopted all of Justice O'Connor's recommendations and future legislation.
More than two years ago, seven people died and thousands became ill in an outbreak of tainted water in Walkerton, Ontario. Today, the Ontario government introduced legislation that it says will result in the cleanest drinking water in the world. The bill is a response to a judicial inquiry into Walkerton that found massive failures in the water safety system.
But the story wasn't over, especially for those who had been affected, those who had lost loved ones or those with lingering health issues, and those who were forced to live in pain for the rest of their lives or those that lost their livelihoods. According to a report commissioned by the Inquiry, the disaster had cost the town of Walkerton an estimated $155 million in lost wages, decreased property values, repairs, legal fees, and human suffering.
not to mention the expense to peace of mind. We live in Canada. You know, we're supposed to be the most caring people on the planet. And here we are in our community with this amount of people ill, and nobody seems to care, nobody seems to know. Nobody's being compensated. People are dying still. I don't get it. But I'm not done fighting. You know, those of us who are able to now, no, it's just starting for us.
This was a very thorough investigation that spanned a great deal of time. We examined every avenue that was available to us and having brought all the material together, an analysis was made, consultations were made, and after everything was put together, it was determined that reasonable and probable grounds exist for these charges.
On April 23rd, 2003, more than three years after the Walkerton water tragedy, Stan Cable and his brother Frank were charged with public nuisance, uttering and forgery, and breach of public duty. The public was split in their reactions. Some residents wanted the brothers to hang or at the very least be charged with manslaughter. Others, like Bruce Davidson of the concerned Walkerton citizens, described the Cables as the, quote, lowest players in the tragedy who should not be scapegoated.
The real problems, he said, were far more complex. But most don't want the cables to go to jail. Their punishment will not bring back a human life. It will not cure one case of kidney disease or irritable bowel. And while we cannot excuse it, I think that that idea that we need to purge some sort of evil from our community is the wrong message. More than a year and a half later, both Stan and Frank pleaded guilty to the public nuisance charges.
Crown attorneys agreed to drop the forgery and breach of trust charges in exchange for their pleas. Two Ontario brothers have agreed to plead guilty to charges associated with the Walkerton tragedy. Seven people died in Walkerton after drinking contaminated water in 2000. Again, the community was divided. Some residents were ready to put the ordeal behind them, while others lamented the missed opportunity for a trial.
Three weeks after the pleas were entered, on December 20, 2004, 46-year-old Frank Cable was sentenced to six months of house arrest with three additional months of nightly curfews.
Stan Cable, 51 years old at the time, was sentenced to 12 months in jail and was released after just four. In addition, both men received nearly six-figure severance buyouts from their time in public service, another facet of the case that sparked outrage among Walkerton taxpayers.
The compensation deal awarded to the victims in the class action lawsuit was nowhere near that amount. Everybody that got sick was offered $2,000, Canadian dollars, with the provision that those with the most severe cases would be eligible to receive more. In exchange, the government of Ontario would not admit any wrongdoing. Just take your money and go. Nothing can adequately compensate families who've lost loved ones. Money cannot heal serious illness.
Oddly enough, many of the Walkerton residents did not feel that two grand was a suitable replacement for grandma or their dead children.
And the money was little consolation for people like Jeff Holliday, who survived the outbreak but would never be the same. I got sick. I was throwing up. I couldn't keep anything down. I had headaches. I had stomach pains. I ended up having a double transplant of my kidney and pancreas. And then five years later, after having the transplant, my small and large intestine, or my bowels, removed because it was all effectively colic.
Jeff did not even live in Walkerton at the time. He was visiting his father, who was scheduled for major surgery. Days later, it was Jeff who was in the hospital gown. This is his mother, Audrey. My daughter-in-law worked up at the hospital, and she says, don't drink the water. But we'd already filled him up with Walkerton water so he could go back to work. So he was drinking what he should have.
Robbie Schnur has a similar story. The former Ontario Provincial Officer was in Walkerton visiting his mother's memorial during those contaminated days in mid-May of 2000. He left for home but forgot his suit jacket, so he returned for another brief stay. While he was there, Robbie Schnur drank some water, as humans are required to do. And ever since, he's been living with severe neurological damage and a degenerative nerve disease suffered as a result of an E. coli infection.
What happened to Robbie Schnur is not his fault, but it is his cross to bear. His legs no longer work, and his fingers so numb they are useless. Robbie told the Toronto Star that he opens bottles of painkillers with his teeth. He was also deaf in one ear and going blind in one eye. His only time outside is spent strapped to a gurney during transport to treatment every other week. Haven't thought about being happy ever.
Robbie Schnur wanted to die. "I just won't live like this anymore," he told the Toronto Star just moments before a doctor came to assist his suicide on May 1, 2018.
There's nothing to look forward to. There's no goals in life. There's nothing. What does a person do when they know they're going to die within hours? Robbie asked himself aloud. I mean, do you walk over and look out the window? I can't walk anyways. I guess you just wait for time to pass and then miss the hors d'oeuvres. I was like ticking the days off. I just didn't want to suffer anymore. That's about it.
Hundreds of other victims are still suffering from the long-term effects of the Walkerton E. coli outbreak. 22 children acquired permanent kidney damage. Other people have had gallbladders removed. Some tell stories about getting lost two blocks away from their house while on foot, and others can't ever seem to remember where they parked their cars.
But they'll never forget why they can't remember. Ten years on, Eldon and Norma Yunt say it still haunts them. Today, they're walking for their best friend, Edith Pearson. She died a slow and painful death. And we were friends and neighbors, and, you know, it brings back horrible. Yeah. I don't like talking about it. I know. Neither do I. Many people in Walkerton don't like talking about it.
It hurts too much or they're just sick of the attention. Organizers expected more people from the area to turn up for the anniversary. But they say after 10 years of bad publicity, some people are just tired of their town being synonymous with contaminated water. In 2018, the government of Walkerton applied for a $70,000 grant to launch a search engine optimization project in an effort to promote positive attributes of the community.
At the time, the Wikipedia article for the Walkerton E. coli outbreak was the second result on Google when searching the town's name. Currently, it is the first, and this podcast is not going to help. My apologies, but I think it should be remembered.
What's that old saying? Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. The days of job killing regulatory burdens getting in the way of businesses, they're done, they're gone. 20 years later, many in Walkerton believe that Ontario is repeating history.
Since taking office, Premier Doug Ford has made sweeping cuts to environmental regulations and budgets. He's eliminated cap-and-trade, cancelled hundreds of green energy contracts, fought the federal carbon tax, and reduced funding for the Ministry of the Environment and more, all in the name of promoting business and cutting red tape. There's nothing constructive I can say about their climate plan. It's all destructive, former Ontario Environment Commissioner Diane Sachs told the CBC.
The Walkerton crisis showed us just as this pandemic has, that our assumption of invulnerability is unsafe. So yes, she said, we should have learned from the Walkerton crisis.
Bruce Davidson from the Concerned Walkerton Citizens agrees. I don't think another Walkerton is necessarily around the corner, but what happens is Walkerton took 20 years to develop and if you chip away at the protection and the precautions and the practices that we put in place then you are leaving yourself in a vulnerable situation where you're ignoring the information before you about the threat.
Swindled is written, researched, produced, and hosted by me, a concerned citizen, with original music by Trevor Howard, a.k.a. Deformer, a.k.a. The Premier. For more information about Swindled, you can visit swindledpodcast.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at Swindled Podcast. Or you can send us a postcard at P.O. Box 6044, Austin, Texas 78762. But please, no packages. We do not trust you.
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