The city of Alamosa has dealt admirably with the salmonella contamination of its municipal water system.
Citizens have stepped up to help one another. Companies have donated bottled water. Assistance has come from around the state.
Along with a lesson in fortitude, the city’s experience has another valuable message to offer. And that has to do with the vulnerability of Colorado’s 100 untreated public water systems.
This year, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment began looking more critically at the water systems that have treatment waivers. That means the systems don’t have to disinfect their water before consumption.
The Alamosa situation underscores why a thorough review of those waivers is a good idea.
In the last year, the CDPHE for various reasons has revoked four waivers, said Steve Gunderson, the department’s director of water quality control. Stricter federal regulations are in the offing, Gunderson said, and the state is trying to get out in front of them.
The systems that don’t treat are required to frequently test for contaminants. In fact, Alamosa had a clean test just days before people began getting sick.
By Tuesday, 251 cases of suspected salmonella poisoning in Alamosa had been reported. Ironically, the city was about to begin treating its water — not because of fear of salmonella but to meet new federal caps on acceptable levels of arsenic.
The source of Alamosa’s salmonella contamination remains a mystery, and no one is suggesting the other systems that don’t treat are in imminent danger of the same fate.
But non-treatment does, without a doubt, constitute a vulnerability.
Gunderson told us there has been resistance among the non-treatment systems. Generally, they are very small systems located on the Eastern Plains. Alamosa was the largest system that doesn’t treat its water. Systems can be so small as to only serve a campground, restaurant in the middle of nowhere or a gas station.
About 85 percent of the state’s population is served by reservoirs, and that water is treated.
The untreated system operators are concerned about the cost of chlorination. But after hearing reports about the wretched symptoms that salmonella poisoning inflicts on its victims, the cost might not seem like such a burden.
Jim Martin, executive director of the CDPHE, told Colorado Public Radio station KCFR that his department will take a close look at the waivers once the Alamosa crisis has abated. About 70 CDPHE personnel are involved in the response.
“What we’ve learned is we’re going to try and prevent one of these from ever happening again,” Martin told KCFR.
That’s a laudable goal, and ought to be a state public health priority. It’s wonderful to see the community come together to support the city of Alamosa in its time of need. As affirming as the response has been, we’d hate to see other communities have to muster the same response when such a situation is eminently preventable.
