25 years later, Walkerton, Ont., bears the scars but has bounced back
CBC
It's been 25 years since the Walkerton, Ont., tainted water tragedy nearly killed her daughter, and Trudy Fraser still does not feel comfortable drinking tap water.
"You lose that trust when you see people you know who got sick and passed away," she said. "That's why I still drink bottled water. It's stayed with us."
Many in this town of 5,000 roughly 150 kilometres north of London, Ont., vividly recall the effects of the Victoria Day weekend in 2000, when a massive rainstorm washed water contaminated with deadly E. coli bacteria from a nearby farm field into one of the wells that fed Walkerton's water supply.
Seven people died, 2,300 people got sick, and an inquiry followed, exposing how funding cuts had gutted provincial oversight of drinking water.
The people who managed the town's water system hadn't been properly trained, but the problem went beyond simple incompetence. Two water utility employees, Stan and Frank Koebel, were convicted on criminal charges after the inquiry found they regularly falsified tests for chlorine levels. Also, Stan Koebel, the water system's manager, lied during the height of the crisis, telling public health officials the water was safe to drink, even though testing clearly showed presence of the deadly bacteria.
Fraser's daughter Allyssa Schnurr was 17 when she got sick in early June 2000. She became lethargic and was taken to hospital in Hanover, just outside of Walkerton, where her family doctor worked.
Soon after, she was rushed by ambulance to London, where she ended up staying in intensive care for four weeks.
"It was terrifying," Fraser told CBC News, reliving the harrowing days spent at her daughter's bedside as the teen underwent life-saving surgeries, dialysis and multiple blood transfusions.
"The doctors told me the day after she got there that she probably wasn't going to live," Fraser said. "And all I could think was, 'What am I going to say to her when I get back into her room?' Because I knew she was going to ask me what the doctors said."
Doctors were able to save Schnurr, who is now 42 and works as an accountant near Kitchener, Ont.
By the time she became sick, the Walkerton deaths had made international news — and she knew the infection could kill her.
"I remember being on my way to London thinking, 'Only the really sick people go to London, so it must be really bad," she said.
Although she survived, complications of her illness linger.
Because an E. coli infection can lead to a condition that damages a person's kidneys, Schnurr's renal function is at two-thirds its normal capacity. She takes medication to control her blood pressure and has to watch her sodium intake. After a difficult pregnancy 13 years ago, she and her husband decided it would be too risky to have a second child.
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