Hazmat responds to Manitou water treatment facility

Hazmat crews and law enforcement raced to Manitou Springs to keep a chlorine leak from spreading at the water treatment plant.

Fortunately, workers were able to get the tanks secured before the problem got worse.

“No additional chlorine gas that was leaking, the facility was secured, and the building was evacuated,” said Cmdr. John Padgett, El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, Emergency Services Division.

It all started when an employee was checking on some equipment inside Manitou’s water treatment facility.

He was exposed to the gas and taken to the hospital.

When exposed to chlorine, the symptoms can be serious: shortness of breath, coughing and a burning sensation in the ears, nose or throat.

That employee, whose name hasn’t been released, was taken to Penrose Hospital for observation after complaining of respiratory illness.

Chlorine is a chemical that’s commonly used in the treatment of drinking water. That combined with its location away from Manitou Springs, means there was never a risk to the general public’s water supply.

“It’s in a remote location, away from the town, good windage. So the amount of gas that was discharged poses no public safety hazard,” Padgett said.

It was a close call, which could have been worse.

The Sheriff’s Office tells us the facility did not have to shut down from the leak.