Water samples in Colorado City show ‘high levels’ of cloudiness
COLORADO CITY, Colo. (KRDO) -- The Colorado City Metro District announced Monday that recent water samples had "high levels of turbidity" and that "there is an increased chance that the water may contain disease-causing organisms."
In a Facebook post on Monday, the city's metro district said its water samples were at 1.0016 turbidity units on Dec. 29 and 30. Colorado allows a maximum level for a single measurement of water to be 0.5 turbidity units.
Shortly after the first post, however, officials said they had resolved the issue and that the latest water samples were in compliance with state guidelines.
City officials had initially encouraged residents to use bottled water instead of tap water prior to resolving the issue. Officials also said they failed to notify the state's drinking water program about the violation in a timely manner.
The Colorado City Metro District says it is currently working on preventing the high turbidity water from flowing into the distribution system.
In early December, more than 60 percent of samples from the Beckwith Treatment Plant showed measurements over 0.1 turbidity units. Then in late December, the Cold Springs Treatment Plant showed 93 percent of the samples were over 0.1 turbidity units, according to officials.
The standard for the district is that no more than five percent of samples may exceed 0.1 turbidity units per month. Normal turbidity levels at the plants are 0.02 turbidity units, according to metro district officials.
However, James Eccher, Colorado City's District Manager, tells KRDO News Channel 13, the water issue has already been dealt with, and turbidity levels have normalized.
"It is not an ongoing issue it's an issue we had for two days," said Eccher. "We put a new set of filters into our plant. That was on the 31st, and our turbidity had dropped."
Eccher says the turbidity levels have dropped below .05 units - well below the .5 state maximum.
Eccher goes on to say his office knew there was a turbidity issue in December, however, he was not made aware of the full extent of the situation until January 10th. That's when his office received a report of the city's drinking water for the month of December.
As soon as Eccher was notified, the city was relayed the message. All 1,000 residents received letters from the state taped to the front doors of their home informing them of the recent water issue.
In the informative letter from the state of Colorado, it says high levels of turbidity could mean there was bacteria in the drinking water, potentially leading to cramps, nausea, or diarrhea. However, Eccher is confident the water is safe to drink now, and then.
"Our chlorine was working," said Eccher. "Chlorine was in the water. If there were any micro germs it would've been taken out by the chlorine."
