In October 2021 a situation arose at Elephant Rock Mobile Home Park in El Paso County leading the department to determine that the drinking water could represent an immediate public health risk and that public notice was needed to let the residents know to boil their water. Over the course of the prior couple of months, the department became aware that the water system did not have a certified operator and that no one was ensuring an adequate supply of chlorine into the tap water. No compliance sampling was taking place. Based on our knowledge of the chlorination system, we estimated that the chlorine had run out. With no one running the system, no sampling and no chlorine, the department issued a bottled water advisory to the system requiring that public notice be delivered to the residents within 24 hours.
However, no administrative contact or owner for the property could be located or contacted. The public notice was not going to be issued by the water system in a timely fashion. The department coordinated with El Paso County health and the city of Palmer Lake. Both of these entities were very concerned for the residents and their situations. The department decided that under a Culture of Health we needed to conduct the public notice ourselves and make sure the residents were informed. We prepared the public notice ourselves and had it translated into Spanish. We coordinated the logistics with local governments for awareness and coordinated with local law enforcement to ensure that everyone would be safe. Then, one of our staff members went to the mobile home park with a local police agent and provided the public notice to the residents. In general, they greatly appreciated the efforts we undertook to help protect them. Our actions also did catch the attention of the property owners, who later took steps to get the system operating properly again. We are still tracking this situation closely.
It is fully a public water system’s responsibility to comply with the Colorado Primary Drinking Water Regulation (Regulation 11), and this includes providing public notice when violations occur or other situations arise that involve letting people know that the water might not be safe to drink. This responsibility also includes providing public notice in the language that residents understand, in this case Spanish. We have had only a couple of instances in the last fifteen years, when a water system was unable to meet this responsibility to the extent that the department had to undertake the public notice activity on their behalf. This is a disappointing and disturbing failure on the part of the public water system. However, as an agency with a Culture of Health as our North Star, we will take action in these cases as needed. We will do this in coordination with appropriate local governments, and in a manner that keeps our staff and the public safe in a difficult situation.
I wanted to share this story with you about our collective commitment with local governments to protect public health and ensure safe tap water for all. Thank you.
➽ Ron Falco, P.E. Safe Drinking Water Program Manager
