To the Left

John Stephens wanted to go home. He had already completed final delivery on his route and was itching to get out of the seat of his tanker truck and sit down to a warm meal. As he drove towards the tanker depot to retrieve his car and head home, the radio in his cab crackled to life. A curse escaped his lips as he was informed that another driver’s truck had broken down, and he was needed to make one additional delivery before calling it a day.

The date was July 6, 1988, and the sun was still high in the evening sky as his aluminum sulfate was pumped into his truck to be taken to the local water treatment plant. His instructions were simple enough. Take the chemical to the treatment plant and dump his load in the tank on the left after entering. He was given the key that would open the manhole in which he would deposit the load, and off he went.

By this point John was working well into the evening hours. Unfortunately, the treatment plant workers were not. He found the facility deserted on his arrival. He also found that there were several tanks to the left when he entered, and this being his first delivery to the facility, he had no idea into which he was meant to deposit his tank of chemicals. John attempted to radio his dispatcher but received no answer. It was then he was struck with an idea, he had been given the key to the tank. He could simply try the key in various tank locks, and when it worked, he would have found the right tank.

John tested the key, and it just so happened that the first tank he tried opened right up. Happy to waste as little time as possible, John dumped in his load, and off he drove. Unbeknownst to John, the key in his pocket was in fact a master key. John had unwittingly opened the lid to a tank that held treated, ready for distribution water, and dumped 20 tons of aluminum sulfate into it.

Aluminum sulphate is a vital chemical in the treatment of water. It is one of the first chemicals introduced and is used to eliminate solid particles from the water. It is also highly acidic and poisonous for humans.

The calls started coming in almost immediately. A woman reported that her husband’s hair was stuck together like super glue after taking a bath. Others reports water that was sticking to them, milk curdling in tea, and water that was black. Unaware of what had happened, authorities reassured the 20,000 residents of Camelford that the water was perfectly safe. They even offered a solution to the markedly unpleasant taste, dilute it with orange juice.

For two days residents of the town were assured everything was fine, and to simply dilute drinking water with juice to cover the taste. On July 8th, plant operators noticed that the aluminum sulfate tank was low, and finally connected the dots.

Aluminum sulfate itself is harmful to humans. But the problem didn’t stop there. It is also a powerful acid. Powerful enough that in just two days, it had wreaked havoc on the lead pipes in the homes of residents adding dissolved lead particles to the drinking water. If that wasn’t enough, it also came to light that the tank the drinking water came from had not been cleaned in over 3 years, and the acidity of the aluminum sulfate had made quick work of dissolving the sludge at the bottom of the tank.

Most tragically, while the orange juice was indeed effective at covering up the taste of the tainted water, it did nothing to slow the effects of aluminum sulfate, lead, and sludge on the human body. Initially residents complained of blistering, indigestion, joint pain, and discolored hair and skin. Later those would turn into fibromyalgia, short term memory loss, and early onset Alzheimer’s.

The events leading up to the disaster are full of simple mistakes. The radio dispatcher should have given much clearer instructions that just “the tank is on the left”. John could have attempted to contact water officials, or his office, or literally anyone else prior to taking matters into his own hands. Water officials could have had a more secure system than allowing for a master key that would open all the tanks.

Those mistakes are what led to the contamination. But they are not what led to the public health crisis. The reason people got sick, the reason people are in pain, and the reason people still suffer, is because rather than fixing the problem, water officials simply gave out instructions that would help it taste better.

Attempting to cover up the root problem, and make things taste better is never going to work. Yet for some reason we all try to do it, especially with our money. There are entire industries devoted to making it taste better.

Almost every one of us at some point has done something we shouldn’t have with our personal finances. Whether that was running up credit card debt, buying a car you really couldn’t afford, or taking a vacation before you had the money to pay for it.

Consolidating credit cards onto a 0% interest card makes it taste better. Paying off your car loan when you complete a cash out refinance makes it taste better. Taking a loan from your 401k to pay off the debt from your trip to Disneyland makes it taste better. But every one of those is only treating the symptom, while the underlying problem will continue to destroy any chance you have of financial success.

There is only one way to fix mistakes, financial or any other kind. Stop trying to cover it up, get busy, and fix the problem.