The Tanker Driver Poured Twenty Tonnes into the Ready Supply

A tanker driver mistakenly pours twenty tonnes of aluminium sulphate into a Cornish ready supply; suspicion, silence and a ring of metal in a bone.

The Tanker Driver Poured Twenty Tonnes into the Ready Supply

In this episode we set out the events of a single afternoon's mistake at Lowermoor and the sixteen-day response that followed, detailing who was involved and what residents experienced. What did officials know, when did they know it, and how did that shape the months that followed?

Location: Lowermoor Water Treatment Works, Cornwall, England Date: 6 July 1988 (incident); 22 July 1988 (first public naming) Person: Tanker driver employed by ISC Chemicals Company: ISC Chemicals (subsidiary of Rio Tinto Zinc) Measurement: Peak aluminium 620 mg/L (≈3,100× legal limit of 0.2 mg/L)

- A relief tanker driver unfamiliar with the site spent ~20 minutes before finding the manhole he used. - He poured ~20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate into the treated water tank rather than the unsettled water tank. - Internal suspicions at the South West Water Authority arose within 48 hours while the public received reassurances. - Customers who complained were told the water was no more harmful than lemon juice and some were advised to mask the taste with orange juice. - Seven months later a bone biopsy from a resident showed a distinct ring of aluminium dated to that summer.

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