The City of Chico let years pass without the permit it needed to clean Sycamore Pool, never ran the bacteria calculations required by law, and kept the Pool open anyway while its own tests showed dangerous levels of bacteria in the water.

CHICO, Calif., July 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Four Northern California families filed suit last week against the City of Chico on behalf of four children — ages one, five, nine, and thirteen at the time of injury. All four were infected with E. coli O157:H7 after swimming and wading in Sycamore Pool and the Five-Mile Recreation Area in Bidwell Park in the summer of 2025. Three of the four developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a life-threatening complication of an E. coli infection, and two children spent fifteen days in the hospital on dialysis and required blood transfusions.  The Complaint was filed in Butte County Superior Court by Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm, of Seattle, and the Quirk Law Firm of Ventura. See copy of Complaint.

"A thirteen-year-old was flown out of Chico on a LifeFlight and spent fifteen days on dialysis. A five-year-old spent fifteen days in a pediatric ICU. A one-year-old and a nine-year-old were hospitalized in Sacramento. These are not statistical risks. These are four children, all of whom carried the same strain of E. coli O157:H7 that the CDC pulled out of the sediment in a pool the City of Chico owns, operates, and advertises to families. The City failed to do what it was required to do, and as a result, four children suffered injury, "stated William Marler, E.coli attorney for the plaintiffs.

The City Owns, Staffs, and Promotes Sycamore Pool as a Place for Children to Swim.

Built in 1924, Sycamore pool is a 600-foot concrete swimming pool — dammed, walled, and floored with concrete. The city owns it, maintains it, tests the water, pays to staff it with certified lifeguards, and markets it in its own promotional video as "essentially like a giant swimming pool … very, very family friendly." Upstream of the pool, where Big Chico Creek flows through Bidwell Park, is the Five-Mile Recreation Area, a popular swimming spot and a swimming site for City-area summer camps for children.

The City's Own Testing of the Waters of Sycamore Pool and Big Chico Creek Came Back Over the Bacterial Legal Limit for Years.

The lawsuit filed last week claims the city failed to discharge its mandatory operational duties. Under state and county rules, the City had to test the waters of Big Chico Creek for E. coli bacteria at least once a week in the summer of 2025. Once the level of E. coli bacteria crossed a certain line, the city had to test the water every day, warn county health officials within twenty-four hours, and take action — up to closing the pool.

The recreational waters of Big Chico Creek exceeded the permissible E. coli levels repeatedly: a sample in May 2025 came back at 461, well over the limit, and readings had topped the safety threshold at least ten times between 2021 and 2024. But the City, the complaint says, also never ran the geometric mean calculations it was required to do and which would have further flagged the danger. Graphs prepared by Butte County Public Health found the water had been unsafe for swimming from January through July 2025 — and for most of the four summers before that.

"Look at the pictures of the sediment and the graphs produced by Butte County Public Health showing repeated and continuous exceedances of permissible E. coli levels – they tell the story of what happened here," says Adriana Zimova, counsel for the plaintiffs.

The City Failed to Hold the Proper Permit to Clean Sycamore Pool for Nearly Three Decades.

E. coli O157:H7 survives in creek and pool sediment, the complaint alleges — and removing that sediment from Sycamore Pool requires a state permit. The complaint alleges the city went roughly twenty-seven years without one; its last permit dated to 1998. The city did not obtain a new permit until July 14, 2025, and did not close and clean the pool until July 16 through 18, 2025 — after all four children had already fallen ill. Photos taken at the time show extreme sediment buildup in Sycamore Pool.

The Same Bacteria Strain that Was Found in the Pool and at the Five-Mile Recreation Area Sickened the Children.

In July 2025 — after the children were hospitalized — the CDC tested the water and the sediment at numerous locations, including at Sycamore Pool and the Five-Mile Recreation Area. It found E. coli O157:H7 at both sites, from samples taken on July 17 and July 24, 2025. Federal scientists then read the bacteria's full genetic code and compared it to the bacteria taken from the four sick children. They matched: the bacteria in the pool were the bacteria that sickened the four children.

What the Families Are Asking For.

The lawsuit makes three claims: that the City kept a public swimming area in a dangerous condition; that it ignored water-safety rules it was legally required to follow; and that City employees were negligent, which makes the City answerable for their conduct. The families are asking a jury to award their children's past and future medical costs and other damages.

About Marler Clark

Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm, is the nation's leading law firm representing victims of foodborne and waterborne illness. The firm has represented thousands of individuals in claims involving E. coli, Salmonella, Listeria, Campylobacter, Cyclospora, hepatitis A, and norovirus, and has recovered more than $900 million on their behalf. Marler Clark also publishes Food Safety News.

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SOURCE Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm