A bitter taste

Three Spokane County couples have a story that would make any home buyer cringe.

The well water supplying their new homes south of Deer Park was so acidic it leached copper from the plumbing into the water, causing upset stomachs, open sores and even a septic system to fail, they say.

Once they realized the problem, however, the homeowners couldn’t get help from the developers who dug the wells, the contractor who connected the houses to them, the real estate agents who sold the homes or even the government agencies that gave approval for the homes to be built.

“I wanted a nice, safe home for my family,” first-time buyer Bryce Robinette said. “We get what should have been a dream home and it turned into an absolute nightmare that no one will acknowledge.”

In a civil trial that started last week in Spokane County Superior Court, Robinette and two other couples are suing Condron Construction and Denison Estates developers Matthew Smith and Jim Markley, who still own the Denison Water Systems at the subdivision.

All three couples purchased homes between 1997 and 2000 in the 27-lot subdivision just two miles south of Deer Park. The homes on half-acre parcels were priced at just above or below $100,000 and some were marketed with special financing as starter homes for working families.

But the homeowners discovered, some quicker than others, that the unlimited water supply for $25 a month wasn’t fit to drink and was in fact dangerous, they allege in the suit.

One of the couples, Denny and Carey Peltier, used early-retirement money to pay Condron Construction to build a house on property they purchased in 1996 from developers Smith and Markley. Their Realtor told them that the water would come from “city water” which they thought meant Deer Park, Carey Peltier said.

The Peltiers said they immediately noticed blue rings in all their appliances and an oily slick on top of the water in their pet’s water dish. But they didn’t connect the water with their upset stomachs until they took a two-week vacation to California and felt great.

Suspecting the water as the source of their ailments, they said they called Craig Condron, owner of Condron Construction, who said it was not his problem. The developers said they didn’t know what the problem could be, so the Peltiers had their water tested. Those tests showed elevated levels of copper leaching out of the pipes because the water was acidic, Carey Peltier said.

The Peltiers eventually paid for a buffering system for their home to combat the water acidity.

In 2000, Denny Peltier warned his new neighbors, Chrisie and Bryce Robinette, not to drink their water.

Two days after Condron signed papers saying there was nothing wrong with the house, Chrisie Robinette tried to get out of the deal based on what they learned about the water.

“I called Condron personally and told him, ‘I want you to buy this house back,’” Chrisie Robinette said. “He said he had more money than me, more power than us and he would out stand us any day in court.”

It’s taken four years to get the case before a jury. After arguments and cross-motions, the only remaining question to be settled at trial is whether Condron and the developers lied to the home purchasers and whether that misinformation affected the value of their homes.

Matthew Sanger, attorney for Condron, said homeowners have no problem with the homes built by his client’s company. The water, which he claims is potable, was provided by the developers, Sanger said.

Before a single home was built, Condron obtained building permits that list the water source for the homes as “Stevens County PUD,” which is a nearby government-approved, rural water provider.

But Sanger claims county officials — not his client — filled out that portion of the building permit listing the wrong water source.

Since part of case the homeowners must prove is that they relied on false information when they purchased their homes, Sanger argued that Condron Construction can’t be held responsible because the homeowners didn’t bother to look at the misleading building permits until after they bought their homes.

Asked what Condron did to fix the mistake on the building permits, Sanger replied: “Nothing needed to be fixed. It wasn’t represented to anybody.”

Robert Sestero Jr. represents Denison Water owners Smith and Markley. He said he it wasn’t appropriate to comment during an on-going trial.

But in court, Sestero told the jury that county and state officials required his clients to file documents indicating that at some point the water system “may” eventually hook up to Stevens County PUD.

“The evidence will be that that representation of a possible takeover … was accurate,” Sestero said.

As proof, he said his clients agreed last December to turn the troubled water system over to Stevens County PUD. “That possibility is becoming a reality,” Sestero said.

But the attorney for the plaintiffs, Marcia Mead, said the developers built the Denison system on the cheap and the eventual takeover by a quality water system came too late for her clients.

“Instead, they put people through hell,” Mead said. “It’s a total lack of accountability.”

One of the couples, Mathew and Monica Ring, lasted the longest. For 5 ½ years, they hauled water into the home to drink. But they, too, were forced to leave when the water killed all the bacteria in their septic system, which caused it to pump raw sewage into their yard, Mead said.

Bryce Robinette, 41, said he bought from Condron Homes because he knew the name and wanted to avoid problems.

He said the family decided they had to get out of the house after their 2-year-old daughter developed open sores on her head, which they believe were caused by bathing in the water coming out of the tap.

“Nobody could tell me what was wrong with the water. Nobody could give me a definitive answer as to what the health risks were,” Robinette said. “There was no way in hell I was going to risk the health of my family for some unknown problem.”

Because state law mandates that Robinette disclose the problems with the water to a new buyer, he couldn’t sell the home for what he paid for it and eventually filed for bankruptcy protection. Today, Robinette still doesn’t own a home.

The Peltiers moved out when they became convinced that their buffering system wasn’t enough to make the water safe.

“It was the best place I ever lived. It was awful to leave,” Carey Peltier said. But “nobody was taking responsibility, so we ran for our lives.”

The Peltiers eventually sold their home for more than they paid, but less than what they paid for improvements, she said. Today the Peltiers’ retirement home is 30-year-old, double-wide trailer worth about $3,500, she said.

“We all entered into this hoping that maybe somebody would hear about this and make sure it would not happen to them,” she said. “If you are on a shared water system in a development, you better know exactly what is going on.”