ALAMOSA, Colo.—An underground reservoir that may have been the starting point for a salmonella outbreak was already scheduled to be taken offline at the time, city officials say.
Salmonella in the city water system was blamed for one death and up to 1,300 illnesses in 2008. Colorado health officials said last week the likely source was animal waste that got into the underground reservoir through holes and cracks.
City officials said a new water treatment plant was under construction at the time of the outbreak, and that the plans included retiring the reservoir, the Alamosa Valley Courier reported this week.
Alamosa Public Works Director Don Koskelin said a 1997 inspection of the reservoir found some chipping, flaking and cracking in the walls but that the structure was in satisfactory condition.
“They (the inspectors) didn’t indicate a reservoir that’s falling apart,” Koskelin told the City Council. “To say we knew there was something significantly wrong with this structure 11 years ago is not accurate.”
Koskelin said construction of the water plant was taking up most of the city’s attention in the months before the outbreak.
Alamosa had a state waiver exempting it from chlorinating its water at the time. The state revoked that waiver and at least 70 others after the outbreak, and others are under review.
Koskelin said the city was already planning to chlorinate its water at the new plant. He said the salmonella outbreak prompted them to speed up the schedule and raise the amount of chlorination.
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Information from: Valley Courier,
