Two wastewater discharge incidents in Pueblo West impact Pest House Gulch, Wild Horse Creek

PUEBLO WEST, Colo. (KRDO) -- The Pueblo West Metropolitan District (PWMD) is alerting residents to two wastewater discharge incidents that happened on October 13.

According to PWMD, the incidents happened during planned infrastructure upgrades to the wastewater treatment facility. They say the facility is currently undergoing improvements to help modernize their UV disinfection system.

PWMD says the first incident happened around 1:15 a.m. on October 13, when district operators responded to an alert about a temporary failure of a contractor-operated bypass pumping system.

According to officials, during that incident, around 54,000 gallons of fully treated, non-disinfected wastewater was discharged into Pest House Gulch and Wild Horse Creek before the service was restored to the UV disinfection system.

PWMD then says a second incident took place later that day during system adjustments related to the disinfection project. According to officials, that spill happened between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., when around 185,000 gallons of partially treated, partially disinfected wastewater were released into Pest House Gulch and Wild Horse Creek.

PWMD says drinking water in Pueblo West remains safe and unaffected, and the incidents did not involve drinking water treatment facilities.

Officials are asking people to avoid recreational use of water in Pest House Gulch and Wild Horse Creek, as well as downstream areas. The Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment is also issuing a warning for the Arkansas River, telling residents to avoid fishing, kayaking or swimming downstream until further notice.

PWMD says personnel responded to both incidents and restored treatment processes and other measures to stabilize the system. The incidents were also reported to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Water quality samples were taken at established testing locations, according to PWMD. They also say say lab analysis for E. coli sampling is currently underway.

PWMD now says it is working with a contractor to add safeguards to help prevent similar incidents.

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