French Water Utility Ordered to Pay €2,000 Over Carcinogenic Gas in Tap Water

Vinyl chloride monomer contamination in tap water, Corrèze, France, Digi Mart USA News (Corrèze, France): The Syndicat des Eaux des Deux Vallées has been ordered to pay €2,000 in damages to a resident of Champagnac-la-Noaille, in Corrèze, after vinyl chloride monomer (CVM), a gas classified as a known carcinogen, was found in her tap water, according to France Inter, which reported the ruling on Tuesday, November 10.

The court’s decision is described as unprecedented. CVM is released from old polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes installed in the 1970s, and water is no longer drinkable above a certain threshold.

Consumers are normally informed through regular checks on these pipes, but this is not always the case.

When the plaintiff bought her house in 2015, she was unaware that CVM was leaching from its pipes. She drank water from the tap for five years and discovered in 2020 that her water was contaminated.

Since then, she has been without safe drinking water.

On September 30, the Tulle court ordered the Syndicat des Eaux des Deux Vallées to compensate her. Her lawyer, Gabrielle Gien, said that given the health risk, the water utility should have flushed the pipes.

“There were very regular and very high exceedances of the threshold of 0.5 micrograms per liter,” she said. “A person who drinks water that is carcinogenic for years is not very good for their health,” Gien added.

Gien said the threshold itself is problematic from a health standpoint, as is the transparency of the water distributor toward its users. She acknowledged that the amount, €2,000 in total damages, is not high, but expressed hope that the ruling could set a precedent.

She argued that more contamination cases will likely emerge as checks are carried out, estimating that around 300,000 people may be affected by CVM contamination of their water networks.

So far, about fifty complaints have been filed over CVM water pollution. The Syndicat des Eaux des Deux Vallées did not wish to comment when contacted.