Editor’s note: The Hufman’s well was contaminated with two chemicals that can form as dry cleaning fluid breaks down. An earlier version of the article incorrectly stated the type of the contamination.
The state allowed hundreds of residents in two Wichita-area neighborhoods to drink contaminated water for years without telling them, despite warning signs of contamination close to water wells used for drinking, washing and bathing.
In 2011, while investigating the possible expansion of a Kwik Shop, the state discovered dry cleaning chemicals had contaminated groundwater at 412 W. Grand in Haysville.
It didn’t test private wells less than a mile away. Nor did it notify residents that their drinking wells could be contaminated with dry cleaning chemicals, known as perchloroethylene, so they could test the water themselves.
“We didn’t find out for 7 years,” said Joe Hufman, whose well was contaminated by a Haysville dry cleaner. “Haysville knew it. KDHE knew it. Kwik Shop knew it.”
It had happened at least once before, at a dry cleaning site near Central and Tyler in Wichita, where the state waited more than four years between […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
It’s not just Republicans…Democrats have plenty of guilt to share. Disregard for the well being of the people is rampant. Otherwise we would have quality universal health care as every modern country does, we wouldn’t be poisoning ourselves with tens of thousands of untested/unregulated chemicals and we wouldn’t have 7 million people in our prison/parole system.
I agree, Dariel, we have a corrupt system based on greed and profit for the few, and we are quickly moving into crisis.