Winnipeg woman finds nasty surprise in her laundry

A Winnipeg woman is looking for answers after brown water entered her home and damaged her family’s clothes. CTV’s Danton Unger has more.

It was a nasty surprise that has cost one Winnipeg woman hundreds of dollars after unloading her washing machine in South Winnipeg only to find her laundry covered in brown sludge.

“This was like a fresh load of laundry, completely disgusting,” said Lisa McLeod, a resident on Easy Street in Winnipeg’s Normand Park neighbourhood.

McLeod said it happened on June 19. She had run a load of laundry through her machine earlier that day with no issues. When she put another load in that afternoon, it came out stained and smeared brown.

“I was just in shock as to what I was looking at. It looked like it was mud,” she said, describing the stains as a kind of sludge.

“I was just kind of standing there, like tearing because I was looking at an entire load of white laundry that was completely destroyed.”

She’s not sure what exactly caused the brown water, but when she called 311, she heard a prerecorded message while on hold.

“It said, ‘We’re cleaning the lines in the south end,’ which was the first time I had heard about it,” she said.

When she got through to 311, she was told to make a claim to the city for the damage. That’s what she did, putting in a claim for $430 to cover the cost of the clothes.

“That includes my gym workout clothing, my husband’s clothing, and my kids’ clothing, and basically all of their pyjamas,” she said.

Less than a week later she got a letter from the city saying her claim had been denied, as the city said there was no evidence of negligence on its part.

The letter goes on to say, “…the city is not liable for damages caused by the quality or content of water supplied by the city unless the water does not meet accepted standards of purity established under provincial regulations respecting health.”

“I don’t have a sample of the water because I didn’t keep one, but there’s no way anyone in the city would want to drink that seeing what it was,” McLeod said. “So how would that meet purity standards? Like, that just blows my mind.”

A spokesperson for the city told CTV News they can’t provide information on specific claims.

“What we can say is that all claims are investigated on an individual basis,” the spokesperson said in an email. “Generally speaking, unless there is evidence of negligence on the City’s part, the claim will be denied.”

They did say crews were not doing any work in the area that day, and the city did not receive any reports or any other claims of discoloured water.

McLeod is expecting to pay out of pocket for the damage, which she expects to be more than $400. She could appeal the city’s decision, but she says that would cost her another $124, and at this point she said the whole ordeal has cost her enough.

Now she’s warning other Winnipeggers to keep an eye on the laundry next time they pop in a load of whites.

“I just want to get the word out, because it’s principle really, like, that shouldn’t happen,” she said.

The city says it has information on its website outlining what residents should do if they experience discoloured water.