Chico Sued After E. coli Outbreak Sickens Children at Sycamore Pool

The legal complaint, filed in Butte County Superior Court, details a summer 2025 outbreak that left three children with hemolytic uremic syndrome, a severe complication. Two of the victims, aged one, five, nine, and thirteen, required weeks of hospitalization, blood transfusions, and dialysis. Genetic testing by the CDC later confirmed a direct match between the bacteria found in the pool's sediment and the strain that infected the children.

According to the suit, the City of Chico neglected mandatory water-safety protocols for years. Although state regulations required weekly E. coli testing and specific geometric mean calculations to trigger pool closures, the city reportedly failed to perform these calculations. Data from Butte County Public Health indicates that water levels exceeded safety thresholds at least ten times between 2021 and 2024, and remained unsafe for swimming throughout the first seven months of 2025.

Further allegations involve a lapse in environmental compliance. The city operated the facility without a necessary state permit to remove sediment for nearly three decades, with its last valid authorization dating back to 1998. It was not until July 2025, after the children had fallen ill, that the city secured a new permit and conducted a deep cleaning of the pool. The plaintiffs are now seeking damages for past and future medical expenses, arguing that the city knowingly maintained a dangerous public facility while ignoring its own internal warnings.