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A class action suit and letter on brown water

SooToday.com has received the following letters about the east end brown water issues from loyal readers Brandon Gough and Mark Brown.

SooToday.com has received the following letters about the east end brown water issues from loyal readers Brandon Gough and Mark Brown.

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One thing is crystal clear from the PUC's presentation about so many people's poor looking, smelling and tasting water:

No quick fix for your water problems was offered.

Anybody who still has ongoing water issues after waiting two years for the PUC to fix them will just have to wait until some City Council appointed committee decides what, if any, action(s) will be taken to fix your problem.

Wrong answer.

There's already a committee for that. It is called the PUC Board of Directors.

And based on the reaction of the large number of citizens who attended last night's city council meeting, continuing to wait for a solution for a few more years while living with brown, chlorine tasting and smelling water is not a palatable option.

They're tired of waiting.

PUC customers with daily, ongoing water issues want, and deserve, a fix right now.

And it's the PUC Board of Directors who hold the power to fix those water problems right now.
 
They just have to spend the money for immediate installation of water filtration systems in the homes of PUC customers who have demonstrable ongoing water colour, taste and smell problems.

Any customer focused water company would do that to keep their customers happy after making them wait for two years while they paid top dollar for dirty, stinky, foul tasting water.

So, while we wait for the PUC Board of Directors to pay for home-based filtration systems, any PUC customer who wants to be part of a Class Action law suit for the money you have had to pay to deal with daily ongoing colour, taste and smell water problems brought on by the PUC's preferred water treatment process please contact:

[email protected]

We'll start collecting names for a Class Action law suit while we wait for the PUC Board of Directors to pay for home-based water filtration systems.

According to the PUC web site ( http://www.ssmpuc.com/ ), the next meetings of the PUC Board of Directors is onWednesday December 11, 2013 at their new building at 500 Second Line East in the Level 1 Training Room at the following times:

PUC Distribution Inc. 4:30 p.m.
Public Utilities Commission 5 p.m.
PUC Services Inc. 5:30 p.m.
PUC Inc. 6 p.m.

We will see what immediate solutions come out of those PUC Board of Director meetings before taking our next step.
In the mean time if you are interested in being part of a Class Action law suit against the PUC contact [email protected]
 
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Dear Mr. Parella,

It is with great concern that I am writing to you here today, but as a concerned citizen of Sault Ste. Marie, having not been directly affected by the brown water issue, but still feeling compassion for those citizens that have such as Ms. Burke, I attended last night’s council meeting as I wanted to hear what you had to say before our council members, Ms. Burke and other the individuals that attended last night who may have or haven’t been affected by the brown water issue plaguing our town as of late.

From a Public Relations standpoint, I would like to express my dissatisfaction for your apology and comments last night and feel that your entire tone last night lacked any sort of care and compassion for not only this specific issue, but for the residents that have been greatly affected by brown water in our city.

Reading off a piece of paper, with your head down, speaking in such a monotone speech that it makes seem as though you do not care about this issue, is no way that you should apologize to the citizens that your company serves.

On top of this, in no way did you ever suggest compensating citizens who have been battling through this as of late and in the past; rather you outlined in your ‘fact sheet’ you generously provided to the individuals in attendance, that refunding mere pennies back to citizens who have to flush their water to make it usable, does not make business sense and would cost the PUC more money to refund than the actual refund would be.

Well how about from our perspective?

It is very clear your eyes are closed when it comes to this matter, and rather than taking a proactive approach to dealing with this, you choose to be reactive and must suffer the consequences as such resulting in angry customers having to listen to you given them a disheartening apology because that was what was written on your ‘script’.

Many individuals (not including myself) have to buy bottled water and filters in order for them to use the water that the PUC provides to them, something that was echoed by several of the council members last night.

We do not live in a third world country; we live in Canada and for that matter, live right by the largest body of fresh water in the world!

We as not only Saultites, but Canadians, should not be plagued by brown water in our community.

In the interim you suggested that to solve the brown water issue, to flush our lines, not only driving up our already high water bills, but driving up customer dissatisfaction with PUC.

You offered us a glimpse of a solution, in that the PUC has this ‘stuff’ we can ask for from you that would eliminate brown water stains, but never mentioning if this is at cost to the customer, which would further gouge our pockets. I think the least the PUC could do is offer this for free to customers that are affected.

I would like to conclude this letter by pointing out something you may consider in the future, whether your position be with the PUC or not.

Public Relations is not always about appeasing your shareholders, your board of directors, your fellow employees and anyone else related in the business world.

Public Relations involves us as customers; the people that pay to use your service; the people that pay your salary!

The least we could have wanted from you last night was a more heartfelt apology, and in my opinion, that would have involved taking your eyes of your scripted ‘I’m sorry’, turning around and addressing the citizens of Sault Ste. Marie and giving us something we can accept.

I left last night with a bitter feeling having not received this from you as I’m sure many others who attended also felt.

You left us with more questions than answers with regards to this issue, but I should point out you did make it clear this brown water issue has no solution in the immediate future.

Compensation is something I feel PUC should consider as you have provided a ‘disservice’ to many residents, and I feel that regardless of the cost, we want our pennies back regardless of the cost because why should we pay for something we don’t use and rather fill your greedy pockets?

I will be sharing this letter with the local media for two reasons.

One, it is abundantly clear that Public Relations is not a strong suit within your company, and it takes our media to finally get the message across to you that this is not something we as citizens take lightly.

And two, this is the PUC we’re talking about, the ‘Public’ Utilities Commission, meaning that your company services the community as a whole, and as such, everyone should be open to hearing what has to be said regarding the inadequacies of your company.

It is high time to step out from behind your desk, step into the shoes of those affected, and express some real emotion for this situation, for as it stands right now, that glass of clean water you drank after your speech to council last night, should have been that jar of murky brown water you preach is ‘safe to drink’.

Brandon Gough

Concerned Citizen 

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