I-TEAM INVESTIGATES: People In Denmark Sue City Over Water
Monday, Nov. 19, 2018
News 12 @ 6 o’clock / NBC 26 at 7
Denmark, SC (WRDW/WAGT) -- “Sometimes when I wash it smells like sewage.”
A decade of dirty clothes…
“Yeah, it smells.”
...dirty water and a dirty secret.
Pauline Brown: “I need to rinse it out again.”
Liz: “Why do you need to rinse it again?”
Pauline Brown: “Because the water is bad.”
“There is something rotten Shakespeare said there is something rotten in Denmark,” Dr. Edwards tells News 12 in an interview.
We met Pauline Brown and Eugene Smith a year ago.
"I'm afraid. I'm afraid," Mrs. Brown said.
That’s when our I-Team showed you Denmark’s history of water violations with the state. Around the same time, Dr. Mark Edwards asked to the city's wells. He is the professor who helped expose the Flint water crisis.
Liz: "Have you had this happen before where a mayor has denied you access to testing the city's wells?"
Dr. Marc: "Never after they told us they could and we made plans to come visit."
Suspicion in town skyrocketed when the mayor told us why he wouldn’t allow the professor to test.
Mayor: "I thought it would be a sort of an insult to the folks at DHEC to have him come behind them and to do the very test they recently done."
Liz: "So you don't want to do it because you believe it would be insulting a state agency?"
Mayor: "No I didn't say that."
We found the mayor’s name listed as the for Denmark's water system on DHEC’s website. We also learned local municipalities collected their own water samples to send to DHEC for testing. Our I-Team tracked the address of where those samples come from in Denmark.
Denmark resident: "My brother worked for the city."
Liz: "Oh he works for the city?"
Denmark resident:: "He did before retiring he was with water."
Liz: "So you must know the mayor pretty well?"
Denmark resident: "I know him quite well."
Liz: "You do?"
Then, this spring, this happened during a town hall meeting. "Some of you have legitimate complaints but you all have slanted views also. you want doctor edwards....dr. edwards has a lot of slanted views."
Dr. Edwards was supposed to be there. He decided not to come after DHEC changed the meeting agenda changed at the last minute.
"We started working with DHEC and things were fine and then at some point they started colluding with the town to cover this up."
But he did look at DHEC’s water report later. That’s when he saw this. "I started doing some research and I had just never heard of a chemical like that being added to water."
HaloSan is not approved by the EPA. It is however certified by NSF, the organization tests chemicals to determine health risks. Under HaloSan it warns: “Drinking water should be monitored to ensure the level does not exceed the recommended level.”
Our I-Team got a hold of a 2011 inspection report. DHEC gave the town an unsatisfactory rating for now monitoring or maintaining records. DHEC wrote: “The current operators are unfamiliar with the function of HaloSan.” The wrote that three years after Denmark started using HaloSan.
"This is the only utility in the united states to add this unproved chemical in their water for a decade," says Dr. Marc.
Ten years of suspicion and concern. Ten years of an unapproved chemical in Denmark’s water.
Denmark is under a cease and desist.
