DC Water and Sewer Authority Contaminated Water Case

Case Name: John Parkhurst, et al. v. D.C. Water and Sewer Authority

Case Type: Public Interest Litigation

Filed in: Superior Court of the District of Columbia

Docket: [Case No.: 0000971-09 B]

In February 2009, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight filed a class action lawsuit against the DC Water and Sewer Authority (“WASA”), alleging negligence, violation of the DC Consumer Protection Procedures Act, and fraudulent misrepresentation, among other violations. 

The lawsuit stemmed from actions by WASA in 2001, when it changed the chemicals it used as a part of the water purification process. The new chemicals caused excess amounts of lead to leach into the water. Although WASA was alerted to the fact that its water was poisonous, it did nothing to remedy the situation, instead taking steps to conceal the problem while continuing to assure DC’s citizens the water was safe.

In so doing, the Complaint alleged, WASA endangered tens of thousands of children who drank the District’s water from 2001 through 2004, and who subsequently suffered such effects as decreased growth, speech and balance problems, the inability to focus, hyperactivity, and brain damage.

In 2016, the matter was resolved.