Burned in the Shower

A resident of a small town in Alabama, jumped in the shower at 5 a.m. one morning in October, 1986, and when he got out his body was covered with tiny blisters. “The more I rubbed it, the worse it got,” the 60 year old resident said. “It looked like someone took a blow torch and singed me.”

He and several other residents received medical treatment at the emergency room of the local hospital after the water system was contaminated with sodium hydroxide, a strong caustic solution.

Other residents claimed that, “It (the water) bubbled up and looked like Alka Seltzer. I stuck my hand under the faucet and some blisters came up.”

One neighbor’s head was covered with blisters after she washed her hair and others complained of burned throats or mouths after drinking the water.

The incident began after an 8-inch water main, that fed the town, broke and was repaired. While repairing the water main, one workman suffered leg burns from a chemical in the water and required medical treatment. Measurements of the ph of the water were as high as 13 in some sections of the pipe.

Investigation into the cause of the problem led to a possible source of the contamination from a nearby chemical company that distributes chemicals such as sodium hydroxide. The sodium hydroxide is brought to the plant in liquid form in bulk tanker trucks and is transferred to a holding tank and then pumped into 55 gallon drums. When the water main broke, a truck driver was adding the water from the bottom of the tank truck instead of the top, and sodium hydroxide backsiphoned into the water main.