Aluminium driver 'told to keep quiet'
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• A relief driver for ISC Chemicals told Exeter Crown Court that he was warned by a water authority employee to keep quiet about an error which contaminated water supplies in North Cornwall.
The court heard that on 6 July 1988 driver John Stephens unknowingly tipped 20 tonnes of 8% aluminium sulphate into the contact tank instead of the aluminium store tank at Lowermore Works, near Carnelford in Cornwall. The site was unmanned. Stephens had a key to open the tank — but it fitted more than one tank.
The public was not warned not to drink the contaminated water, the court heard.
Stephens said he returned to Lowermoor six days later to report which tank he had discharged the load into and met Christopher Hawke, a water authority supervisor. Stephens alleges Hawke attempted to dissuade him from disclosing that the aluminium sulphate had been put into the wrong tank.