State, Jackson fitness center reach settlement in E. coli case

Owners of a Jackson fitness center and the state of Missouri have reached a settlement in a court battle about drinking water served by the center that state regulators said sickened several people with E. coli in 2010.

An investigation by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services tracked the source of illness to the Class Act Family Fitness Center's water and found the center was connected to an unauthorized and contaminated farm well.

The center's owners, Shawn and Lynn McNally, were sued in 2011 by Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster for violating the state's safe drinking water laws, and by the parents of eight children who contracted E. coli.

Koster on Tuesday said in a news release the McNallys will connect hand washing sinks in the facility's restrooms to a state-approved drinking water holding tank with new water treatment and distribution systems. The water-distribution system will be a regulated public water system under the Missouri Safe Drinking Water Law. The McNallys also agreed to obtain a permit from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to dispense drinking water to the public and refrain from supplying drinking water from the fitness center's old well for public consumption, according to the release. The couple also will pay a civil penalty of $22,500 with $15,000 suspended upon compliance with the judgment, as well as the state's court costs, according to the court ruling.

In 2011, the McNallys' attorney, Cynthia Masterson of St. Louis, denied water samples taken by DNR tested positive for E. coli and said the McNallys had no knowledge of or control over the children's alleged illnesses.

"Whatever injuries or damages plaintiffs may have suffered, if any, were the result of their own failure to exercise due care for their safety at the time and place in question," she said at the time.

"We, very unfairly, got bad rap from the whole thing," Shawn McNally told the Southeast Missourian in December 2011. McNally said at the time he tried to comply with the Department of Natural Resources but that the department was uncooperative and did not use proper procedures when testing his water.

The Southeast Missourian was unable to reach anyone at Class Act late Tuesday afternoon.

Masterson said Wednesday that she didn't represent the McNallys in legal action taken by the DNR, but in civil suits filed by families of children who reportedly were sickened by drinking the water. Masterson said she had no comment on those cases.

Pertinent address:

2336 County Road 307, Jackson, Mo.