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Nausea, rashes & sores: Slidell residents claim tap water sickened neighborhood

Residents are mostly baffled that no boil water advisory was issued to warn them about their drinking water during the days when sewage was spilling.

David Hammer / WWL Louisiana Investigator, Sara Pagones / The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate

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Published: 7:07 PM CST February 8, 2022
Updated: 4:52 PM CST February 9, 2022

When Ashley Schenck and her family moved to Cross Gates subdivision near Slidell a decade ago, a friend cautioned her not to drink the tap water, a warning that Schenck, a nurse manager and mother of two boys, found hard to fathom.

But during Easter weekend last year, Schenck was hit with nausea, gastro-intestinal issues and severe abdominal and bladder pain at the same time her children and neighbor broke out in sores.

She soon learned that they weren't alone. Several of her neighbors also got sick then -- at the same time raw sewage was spilling from a broken sewer force main near the line that brings water from the Willow Wood well to their homes.

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