Man pleads guilty to tampering with drinking water supply in Massachusetts town
A former worker at the Stoughton Water Department has pleaded guilty to tampering with the town's drinking water supply, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts said.
Robert Bullock Sr., a 60-year-old from Brockton, pleaded guilty to one count of tampering with a water system.
"On the evening of Nov. 29, 2022, Bullock went into one of the Water Department's pumping stations and turned off the pump that introduces chlorine into drinking water," U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley's office said in a statement. "As a result, insufficiently disinfected water was introduced into the drinking water system."
Stoughton water supply tampering
Town manager Tom Calter notified residents about the incident in a letter dated July 28, 2023. He said someone had apparently disabled an alarm that goes off when the chlorine pump is shut off.
The water pumping station off Sumner Street is locked and surrounded by a fence.
"There were no signs of forced entry of these physical barriers," Calter said. "Beyond this, only someone with access to and knowledge of the alarm and chlorine systems could have adjusted them in this manner."
Calter said police notified the FBI of the incident, "due to the potential domestic terrorism implications." But he said the water supply was never at risk because of the town quickly noticed that the pump had been turned off, and restarted it before chlorine levels got too low.
Bullock will be sentenced on June 25. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
