A former manager at the South West Water Authority (SWWA) has told an inquest that staff were instructed not to disclose details of the 1988 Camelford water poisoning, the UK's worst mass contamination incident. Twenty tonnes of aluminium sulphate were accidentally added to the water supply, affecting around 20,000 homes.
John Lewis, then manager for the Fowey district which included the Lowermoor treatment plant, said he was given 'specific instructions' by head of operations Leslie Nicks not to inform the public. Lewis stated that senior managers wanted to keep the cause of the contamination secret until the delivery driver could confirm his error.
Mr Nicks, also giving evidence, said he had wanted to go public but was overruled. He described the failure to announce the cause after a board meeting on 13 July, five days after the incident, as 'the biggest mistake'. The public were only informed three weeks later that a substance had been accidentally added to the water.
Lewis was the only staff member to lose his job over the incident, claiming he was made a '100% scapegoat' for political reasons. The inquest in Taunton is examining the death of Carole Cross, a former Camelford resident who died in 2004 from a brain disease, with high aluminium levels found in her brain.
