The Aiken Diseased Water Coverup is Enforced by the South Carolina Government.

The South Carolina Department of Public Health joins the Aiken City government to cover up public health hazards in our drinking water.

Coverups Continue

Both the Aiken government and now the South Carolina government thwart legitimate investigations of serious health hazards. The Aiken government claims that requested Freedom of Information Act information (FOIA) is unavailable, yet some of that information has already been released. The South Carolina government provides partial information. Together, this blockage of information prevents adequate tracking of disease transmission to Aiken residents.

SC Department of Public Health Censorship

In response to a FOIA request, the SC DPH provided Tables 1 and 2 but refused to provide even the zip codes or dates for infected personnel, and Aiken refused to provide water main-break information for dates or locations. The DPH claims that zip codes are protected information, where 'Information of a personal nature where the public disclosure thereof would constitute unreasonable invasion of personal privacy'. How can such information that covers hundreds or thousands of people protect specific individuals.? Such a claim is absurd.

Without such data, cross-referencing disease transmission to water main breaks is nearly impossible. The single case that Aiken cannot censor was recorded for an Aiken resident in an earlier Op Ed.

In December 2019, in the kitchen of her home, she drank clear water that passed through a Brita filter, which does not filter cryptosporidiosis from drinking water. When she went upstairs to brush her teeth, she saw that brown water was flowing from the faucet in her bathroom sink. Chlorine used to disinfect drinking water has no effect on cryptosporidium, which can enter water mains during repairs and through water hammer-induced cracks.

She was ill for five days after drinking the partially filtered brown water, where cryptosporidiosis symptoms appear in two to ten days. She collapsed within several days of drinking brown water, and she was later hospitalized for four days in January 2020, and the cause of her illness was unknown for several years until it was diagnosed as cryptosporidiosis in 2023. Between December 2019 and 2023, she saw different doctors on several occasions and experienced 'severe diarrhea all the time, fatigue and zero energy', which are symptoms of cryptosporidiosis.

In 2023, the Mayor of Aiken informed her that her water was tested and was safe to drink. In other words, he falsely claimed that tests performed years after the infection event were adequate to confirm her water safety. There is no possible way that tests, at such a late date, had anything to do whatsoever with infection years earlier.

Accordingly, evidence concludes that she was infected with cryptosporidiosis by Aiken drinking water.

From DPH data for potentially deadly cryptosporidiosis, Legionella, Listeria and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), there is no doubt that drinking water diseases are in process in Aiken and South Carolina, but censorship thwarts public health. Note that the 'Aiken Brown Water Fiasco' data has been redacted, where most of Aiken was potentially exposed to infectious diseases. To withhold disease information from the public is irresponsible and dangerous.

Earlier Op Eds To Fight Against Drinking Water Disease

In a series of scientific Op Eds, the coverup of drinking water dangers in Aiken has been clearly demonstrated:

"The Fight for Safe Drinking Water Surges Forward in Aiken", "Cryptosporidium Reported in Aiken Drinking Water - Hammering Out a Fight Toward Disease-Free and Lead-Free Water", "The Drinking Water Disease Spree; Aiken S.C. is Ground-Zero", "Aiken, S.C. + Drinking Water = Brown Water + Parallel Health Hazards", "Aiken, S.C. Officials Destroy Our Water System and Endanger Our Lives and Health", "Aiken Coverups and New Scientific Advances in Water Main Breaks", "Money is Gone in My Home Town of Aiken, and the Water Main Breaks Keep on Coming", "Water-Main Breaks in Mississippi and Across U.S. Can Be Stopped" (click here), "Water main breaks can be stopped" (click here),"No reason for water mains to break" (click here), "Water main breaks will continue in Aiken" (click here)", "City must address water main breaks" (click here), "Water main breaks can be prevented" (click here).

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