Idaho town told not to drink water amid contamination scare

[roadmaster]

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Residents of an Idaho town have been told not to drink its well water amid concerns that a fired municipal worker who killed himself in his home may have contaminated it, officials said Friday.
Tom Young, 62, was found dead Thursday by emergency workers who were sent to a hospital after entering his residence in Dietrich.
Lincoln County Sheriff Rene Rodriguez said Friday that Young’s death has been ruled a suicide and the cause is asphyxiation by nitrogen gas released into the home from a tank.


The gas is also blamed for sickening seven emergency workers, including Rodriguez, who was among those transported to hospitals. One other person was taken to a hospital. All were later released.
“For a couple of our guys it was sudden onset, and for me and a couple others it was delayed reaction,” said Rodriguez, noting he was still experiencing headaches.
It’s the second case in recent years that has drawn attention to the tiny farming town located about 125 miles east of Boise and known for its deeply religious population.
In 2015, three high school football teammates were charged with sodomizing a black teenager with a clothes hanger in a locker room.

https://www.apnews.com/a1caf4846ebf4...m=APWestRegion

[Peter1469]

Hopefully they can get the wells cleaned up.

[Tahuyaman]

Hopefully they can get the wells cleaned up.

In the mean time, this should be moved to the Local News area.

[Crepitus]

Nitrogen is neither poisonous nor toxic. It is inert. The danger lies in suffocation as it can displace all the oxygen in a closed area.

[Don]

And it doesn't take too much to do this. We breathe in close to 80% nitrogen with every breath we take. It can be a real quick killer.

[Don]

We had some contractors cleaning an outside tank. We set them up with blowers and an O2 meter and told them only one could enter while the other watched him. We told them if someone did go down or seem to be having trouble NOT to enter, but to sound the emergency alarm. The spotter was watching his partner when he stood up suddenly and started to climb the ladder out. He made it 2 steps and collapsed. The spotter thought that he was just trying to exit the tank and fell so he ignored our instructions and entered the tank. While he was checking on him he too became overcome and passed out.

They should have both died except for chance. One of our employees who worked in the warehouse was going to lunch about one minute later and he happened to glance over where the tanks were. He didn't see anyone and figured they probably went to lunch. Something gnawed at him though so he walked up the hill and looked in and saw them. He sounded the emergency alarm and called 911. Within 2 more minutes we had people from our emergency brigade in the tank and pulling them out and our paramedics on scene administered O2 to them. When the ambulance got there their paramedics continued treatment all the way to the hospital where they were put into a hyperbaric chamber. They made it with no brain damage.

It turned out they wanted air for their grinder. They saw a line and valve that was painted green (for N2) and tried to plug into it. Of course an air fitting won't work on an N2 line so they unscrewed the fitting and put an air fitting on it. Didn't take long to introduce enough N2 into the tank for them to lose consciousness. When you realize you're in trouble its too late. After that we made contractors work for us and we controlled all aspects of confined space entries.

[donttread]

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Residents of an Idaho town have been told not to drink its well water amid concerns that a fired municipal worker who killed himself in his home may have contaminated it, officials said Friday.
Tom Young, 62, was found dead Thursday by emergency workers who were sent to a hospital after entering his residence in Dietrich.
Lincoln County Sheriff Rene Rodriguez said Friday that Young’s death has been ruled a suicide and the cause is asphyxiation by nitrogen gas released into the home from a tank.


The gas is also blamed for sickening seven emergency workers, including Rodriguez, who was among those transported to hospitals. One other person was taken to a hospital. All were later released.
“For a couple of our guys it was sudden onset, and for me and a couple others it was delayed reaction,” said Rodriguez, noting he was still experiencing headaches.
It’s the second case in recent years that has drawn attention to the tiny farming town located about 125 miles east of Boise and known for its deeply religious population.
In 2015, three high school football teammates were charged with sodomizing a black teenager with a clothes hanger in a locker room.

https://www.apnews.com/a1caf4846ebf4...m=APWestRegion

Probation in the sodomy case? Must have been a male victim?