For clean water, couple spent $8,000

They blame skin rash on what flows from their pipes

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For the past two years, Leonard Albert, 74, and his wife, Therese, had been noticing a pattern. The couple, Malverne residents for over 40 years, had been developing a skin rash — red skin accompanied by bumps on their legs, backs, chests, feet and elsewhere.

“It was all over the place,” said Leonard. “We couldn’t sleep because of it.” They didn’t know why it was happening at first, but noticed that the rash would immediately go away when they spent time in their second home upstate. And it would return almost immediately when they returned to Malverne.

Then their suspicion turned to the water coming out of their pipes.

The Alberts visited several area doctors, after thinking their affliction might be scabies or eczema, who told them they suspected the same thing. “Every doctor we spoke to said it was the water,” Albert recounted. “One even told me maybe I should sell my house.” Another doctor advised him that perhaps he should wait until they change the water main on his street — Silver Street — before he put his house up for sale. Luckily for the Alberts, that main is scheduled to be replaced in June or July.

In the meantime, they have spent over $8,000 trying to fix whatever they could on their end. They purchased a whole-house water filter. They changed 90 percent of the copper water pipes in their home. They bought a new water heater. Albert said that the changes are helping, but he is looking forward to having the water main changed.

The Alberts were also visited last year by New York American Water President Brian Bruce and Water Quality Manager Michael Nolfi, who tested their water. “[Nolfi] took me aside and told me to get a water filter,” Albert recalled. “As long as the water is potable, there’s nothing more they can do.” Albert also appealed to the state Department of Health — which told him the same thing.

The Alberts said the rash appeared suddenly two years ago, and before they added the water filter, the water heater and the new pipes, they avoided hosting holidays celebrations or any social gatherings because they didn’t know whether the water would harm their visitors.

The couple said they didn’t experience any rashes prior to 2014, but guests would often say that their water smelled of chlorine.