Indiana James Peters, now widely known as the whistleblower behind the ongoing scandal of water contamination, has nothing more to say other than he will not be quieted. His recent personal tort action filed against the City of Alexandria marks a pivotal moment in this affair. What began as angry outcry over foul water has now burgeoned into all out legal warfare, one that lays bare alleged deception, cover ups, and the awful human let caused by city officials as well as state regulators.
Shocking Charges of Corruption and Cover up
In legal documents Peters charges that local leaders in Alexandria worked hand in glove with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) acted local laws to suppress and amend vital water test results. Rather than alert residents, officials allegedly manipulated data to conceal extremely low levels of chlorine and E. coli in the city’s public water supply. Regardless of city leaders constantly giving the public assurance that its water was “safe,” families, including Peters’ own, were drinking water that they did not know had been treated with poison water linked to permanently impaired health for them.
The Human Cost of Contamination
Peters ‘affidavit details the terrible personal damage he has sustained from this pollution:
- Permanent loss of kidney function
- Chronic gastrointestinal disease
- Nerve damage with lifetime consequences
- Other serious and permanent bodily injuries
Prior to this pollution occurrence, Peters had a clean medical past, merely four hospital emergency room visits during several years. Since that event, he has been obliged to suffer 86 hospital and laboratory visits, escalating medical debts and constant pain. His situation is far from unique: many people in Alexandria now confront similar long-term health disasters with no end in sight.
Leaders Betrayed a Community
This horrible phase was reached when Alexandria’s mayor ordered water meters removed from a local trailer park, cutting off dozens of households including children as well as a man fighting cancer from clean drinking supplies. This move, universally condemned as one of the worst cases of “cruel and wanton” city council decisions in city history, has already given rise to more than 30 separate court actions; more are being filed every day. Instead of resolving the water emergency, city officials are completely absorbed in self-defense lawsuits, leaving the people of Alexandria locked in a never ending nightmare filled with uncertainty and health risks.
Peters Declares: “We Will Not Be Silenced”
“This is not negligence but betrayal,” Peters charged. “When society leaders cut water off from families already teetering on the border, they are guilty of an attack on fundamental human rights. Those officials–they can go home at night and pretend everything is fine. We shall be here, committed to ensuring that they pay the price whether in this life or the next.”
This promise by Peters has hit a nerve with the common citizenry in the state of Alexandria and the people feel that they have been deceived by the very people who were meant to guard over them. With law suit on law suit and the shades of silence beginning to ring to city hall, it is easy to realize that the battle of truth and accountability is yet to commence.
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