Concerns over Weatherly’s public water supply prompted officials to speak out at Monday’s meeting.

Tom Connors, the borough’s mayor and council president, said council needs to assure the community after an anonymous article was shared on an online group dedicated to local news and events. The article claims that the borough has been aware of pollution from a former industrial site contaminating the sources of the borough’s drinking water.

But Connors strongly denied that the borough was purposely deceiving its residents about contaminated water.

“The person who put this on Facebook did a misjustice to this community, and I think they owe us an apology. The person who is claiming this should really be brought to court over it because if you’re gonna make allegations like that, that for years we have been drinking water that’s killing us, you better have some proof,” Connors said.

The anonymous article was posted Monday on two Facebook groups where Weatherly residents post concerns about neighbors, events and local news. It claims that the borough has an above-average rate of cancer deaths caused by contaminated public drinking water.

The article claims that the three wells, which the borough uses to provide public drinking water have been polluted by chemicals which were used at the former Tung-Sol electric plant. It alleged that the plant’s former owners used chemicals linked to cancer, and declared bankruptcy before properly cleaning up the site.

“It remains too coincidental for a toxic site to be in the heart of town yet unexplainable cancer rates remain rampant. It is imperative that the contamination must be cleaned up and accountability addressed,” the anonymous article said.

The article also said chemicals like trichloroethylene and mercury were used extensively in the manufacturing process at Tung-Sol, which manufactured car headlights and other electrical components for 50 years before closing in 1998.

The article said that the company operated with little environmental oversight for much of the time it operated.

In 2007, the borough bought the Tung-Sol site, and today they are breaking ground on a multimillion dollar municipal building on it.

The writer didn’t blame the borough for causing the problem, but claims that the borough has failed to properly use equipment that would remove some of the chemicals from the well water.

Furthermore, the writer claims that the borough is intentionally keeping its residents in the dark by no longer mailing out the results of its annual drinking water quality survey, which is required by Department of Environmental Protection.

The last two reports posted online by the borough do not show any evidence of the chemicals which the article mentions.

Connors said the borough may need to do more to share those results and assure residents.

“I think council should be open to at least making sure they are more readily available, then if anyone has any concerns they can contact us and we can discuss it,” he said.

Chris Lukasevich, a retired Army colonel from Jim Thorpe and a Republican nominee for Carbon County Commissioner, shared the article to the forums.

Lukasevich said in his posts that he had no position on the claims, but rather was looking to get the community’s opinion.

Some commenters said they had been affected by cancer and the claims rang true for them. Others asked about Lukasevich’s motivation in the post.

As evidence, Lukasevich shared a list, presumably prepared by the same author, of residents who were deceased or battling cancer — with links to obituaries.

Connors said he’s had close family members die of cancer, and he would never blame the water in Weatherly.

Councilwoman Theresa D’Andrea said she lost two children to cancer, but she doesn’t blame the town’s water.

Connors said he heard from residents who said the author contacted them, encouraging them to sue the borough over exposure to pollution through its groundwater.

“I find it very disrespectful that you would treat those families like that,” Connors said.