From the Fort Collins Coloradan (Jacy Marmaduke):
Lead comparable to levels in Flint, Michigan, has contaminated drinking water sources in a place you might least expect: the picturesque mountains near Estes Park, known for its spectacular views of Rocky Mountain National Park.
Documents show four locations clustered near Estes Park since 2012 have met or exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s action level for lead in drinking water.
The results catapulted Larimer County to a tie for the most sites in the state with drinking water test results of 15 or more parts of lead per billion parts of water between 2012 and 2015. Clear Creek County, west of Denver along Interstate 70, also had four sites with lead contamination during that period.
Fort Collins tested well below federal lead standards.
The Estes Park sites are:
YMCA of the Rockies, which sees thousands of guests annually and has flirted with the action level for lead since at least 2012. Covenant Heights Camp and Retreat, which in 2015 saw lead levels in two staff cabins comparable to the highest levels documented in Flint. Prospect Mountain Water Company, which supplies water to about 120 Estes Park residents and as recently as 2014 displayed an average lead about equal to Flint. Ravencrest Chalet, a bible school and retreat that just exceeded the action level for lead in 2013. Officials with the town of Estes Park water system, which supplies water to Prospect Mountain Water Company and Ravencrest Chalet but operates independently from all four sites, said Estes Park water sources aren’t to blame for the lead contamination. The Estes Park water system tested 2 parts per billion for lead in 2015, and none of its 23 samples exceeded the EPA’s action level of 15 ppb.
“They have their own distribution systems,” Estes Park water distribution supervisor Cliff Tedder said of the contaminated sites. “Whatever they’re doing isn’t working.”
‘Fully compliant’
YMCA of the Rockies, located just southwest of Estes Park, supplies drinking water to more than 3,700 guests and staffers. It is the largest water system in Estes Park that has seen elevated lead levels. YMCA collects water from the Wind River Stream diversion, disinfects it and distributes it to guests and staff independently of Estes Park’s water system. YMCA uses a corrosion control system, spokeswoman Martha Sortland said.
YMCA’s lead levels tested from 10 to 60 water samples around the property, has been 15 ppb four times since 2012. Every year since at least 2012, at least one drinking water sample from the property has tested at or above 15 ppb.
Sortland said at least one of the samples that contained lead higher than the EPA’s action level came from a guest cabin. But YMCA didn’t take action because “we were, and are, fully compliant with Colorado drinking water regulations,” Sortland said.
She’s right.
A water system’s 90th percentile lead value, which means 90 percent of test sites will have levels below the threshold, has to be more than, not equal to, 15 ppb to trigger action such as mandatory treatment plans and public water quality warnings. But the facility’s water contained more than seven times the amount of lead present in Town of Estes Park water.
From USA Today (Trevor Hughes) via the Fort Collins Coloradan:
[Firestone] officials repeatedly notified all water customers of the high levels and distributed information explaining how to reduce the risk. But the town, about 30 miles north of Denver, has taken no direct action to help residents replace the aging faucets and fixtures blamed for leaching lead into their drinking water.
The town’s testing found lead contamination only in homes built before 1986…
The town’s water provider installed a system in the fall to inject a phosphate coating agent into the water to help reduce the corrosive effect that leaches lead from plumbing. That’s the solution required by state regulators, who say Firestone is making progress in bringing down lead levels.
“It is our hope that this additive to our water supply will continue to reduce the lead levels inside these older homes,” Mayor Paul Sorensen said in a prepared statement.
Like many fast-growing towns on Colorado’s Front Range, Firestone is a small, old-town area surrounded with new suburbs. The town has a few blocks of old homes amidst nearly 3,500 newer ones.
In Firestone’s case, testing never has found lead in the municipal water supply or in any of the newer homes. That means the bulk of the town’s 12,000 residents face almost no risk.