Bright-red fliers on Tuesday started going out to residents of Alamosa, telling them to stay away from tap water — no showers, no baths, no dish washing; nothing except flushing toilets — until further notice.
The one-page “Stage 1 Red Safety Notice” — distributed door to door by National Guard troops — warns that high concentrations of toxic chlorine are being forced through neighborhood pipes to disinfect the city’s bacteria-contaminated water supply.
As of Tuesday, a week into a salmonella-bacteria outbreak, 237 residents in the community of about 10,000 had become ill.
All 10 who had gone to the hospital have been released.
Still, the bug has taken its toll around the city. Joey Espinoza, 16, was bedridden for a week and lost 13 pounds. Finally, he had a hamburger, only to discover he was still ill.
“I figured I’ll get better eventually,” he said. “Everybody else has.”
Now, the city is trying to flush almost half a million gallons of heavily chlorinated water through the 50 miles of pipe and out 3,000 taps.
Among the biggest concerns are that the bacteria-killing water will miss some pockets or the pressure will break old cast-iron pipes, said Public Works director Don Koskelin.
The big flush got off to a good start Tuesday.
“Everything so far is going really well,” Koskelin said.
Since March 19, townspeople have been told not to drink the water and the city has been distributing 8,000 gallons of bottled or bulk water daily.
“Everybody is trying really hard to make the best of this,” said resident Cindy Martinez. “We’ll see how it goes after we haven’t showered for a few days.”
Alamosa has been spending $33,000 a day to meet the public-health crisis, Mayor pro tem Kathy Rogers said. The state has provided $300,000 in aid.
The daily cost will rise with the flushing process, but city officials say they don’t know how much yet.
Denver Water experts helped Alamosa water workers drain, clean and refill the city’s 300,000-gallon closed reservoir and a 500,000-gallon tower-top tank.
The city water tower is a giant blue- and white-striped bulb perched on a 165-foot pedestal. It dominates the city.
The tank and reservoir are being refilled with water containing chlorine at 25 parts per million, a level high enough to kill the infectious bacteria — but too high to drink or bring into contact with skin.
Drinking water is disinfected with chlorine at 1 to 2 parts per million.
“The only daunting thing about this is pushing chlorine through an entire system at once,” said Denver Water quality investigator Chris Hernandez.
Until the chlorine levels drop below 10 parts per million, the water isn’t safe to use, officials said. Chlorine is a strong irritant to skin, eyes and the respiratory system.
Even at 10 parts per million, officials advise that residents take only very short, lukewarm showers or sponge baths.
“It could take a few days before people can shower again,” Rogers said early Tuesday. “It could be weeks before the water is safe to drink.”
The Alamosa School District canceled classes for its 2,100 students and 280 staff members Tuesday through the end of this week, Superintendent Henry Herrera said.
“The administration is still working,” Herrera said. “If we can’t stand the way we smell by the end of the week, we might take Friday off.”
Alamosa, which gets its water from five deep wells, didn’t chlorinate the supply because the groundwater had been bacteria-free.
The city is set to open a treatment plant in June to meet federal safe-water drinking standards by lowering levels of arsenic naturally occurring in the groundwater.
Officials still don’t know the source of the salmonella contamination, so the chlorination probably will be continuous from now on, Koskelin said.
Before any of the water can drain into the storm system and the Rio Grande, it must be dechlorinated, state Department of Public Health and Environment official Gary Soldano said.
“It presents a concern,” Soldano said. “We must follow where it goes.”
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
