Christie Volkmer bought a newly-built home on Kauai from D.R. Horton in 2018. Two years later, she and her family noticed something wrong with their water system.
KAUAI COUNTY, Hawaii (Island News) – Christie Volkmer bought a newly-built home on Kauai from D.R. Horton in 2018. Two years later, she and her family noticed something wrong with their water system.
“Something just plopped out. This blob of like slime just plopped out of the faucet,” said Volkmer.
Volkmer said they later found out that the blob was biofilm and that it was coming out of not just their shower, but from everything in their home that uses water.
“A lot of our neighbors and ourselves included were experiencing ear infections, eye infections, skin infections that we couldn’t explain otherwise,” said Volkmer.
Volkmer said she and her family have been living off of water bottles and showering in a hamper shower for the last three years.
Volkmer’s home was not the only one with the same issue. She said many homes in her neighborhood have been affected, however only about 10 different families are taking D.R. Horton to court.
“This has been going on for several years. We finally filed a lawsuit in circuit court of Kauai and they move to dismiss our lawsuit,” said Robert Klein, a lawyer.
D.R. Horton provided Island News a statement saying:
“D.R. Horton remains committed to the quality of our homes and our homeowners.
D.R. Horton is aware of certain homeowner concerns at a limited number of homes within the Ho‘oluana at Kohea Loa Subdivision. D.R. Horton has worked diligently, professionally, and promptly to address the matter since it was brought to our attention and retained both local and nationally accredited third-party experts to conduct extensive investigation and testing to evaluate and address concerns raised by homeowners. These experts have found that there are no construction or plumbing product related issues that would impair the quality of the water. Rather, the experts believe the cause of the homeowner complaints is due to low residual disinfectant levels (i.e., low levels of residual chlorine) in the water and water distribution system. Unfortunately, D.R. Horton has no control over the source water or water distribution systems for the Ho‘oluana at Kohea Loa Subdivision.
D.R. Horton has offered the installation of ultraviolet (UV) systems to disinfect the incoming water at no cost to homeowners in an effort to address their concerns.”
Volkmer said she just wants her and her family to be able to live comfortably again.
