5 years, 10 months ago by Scott Hardy
Suit filed in 2016 claims city's drinking water was unsafe
A preliminary agreement in a class action lawsuit, filed against the City of Hannibal and the Board of Public Works over the city's drinking water, has been reached.
Court records show that a judge in St. Louis County Circuit Court Wednesday gave preliminary approval to a settlement in the suit, filed in 2016. A final hearing on the matter is set for August 24th. Notices of who qualifies for the class action are due to be sent to Hannibal residents within the next few weeks. On Friday, the four Hannibal residents who filed the suit agreed to drop the Missouri Department of Natural Resources as a defendant.
The residents, including former Missouri State House candidate O.C. Latta, claimed in the suit that the city and BPW had failed to provide them with safe drinking water from 2011 to 2016. The suit says the city has consistently found that the water supply contains levels of disinfection byproducts known as total tri-halo-methanes, or TTHM's, that exceed federally-permitted thresholds. It also says that TTHM's are identified as probable cancer-causing agents in humans by the Environmental Protection Agency. The four had been asking for monetary damages, saying that the city and the BPW had forced them to pay for un-safe drinking water.
Final terms of the settlement will be available later this summer.
