https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/toxic-sludge-drinking-water-
colorado-prairie-view-ranch-water-district-hazmat-morgan-county/

The tanks that hold drinking water for nearly 140 residents in the Prairie
View Ranch Water District are full of sludge that is so toxic that
Colorado's Water Quality Control Division has now brought in hazmat crews
to dig them up and clean them out.

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"I don't know how else to explain how this could have happened. There are
checks and balances that are supposed to be in place," said Jesse
McCoppin, who lives in the district and says proper oversight has been
missing for nearly 20 years, putting the health and homes of those who
live in the district at risk.

The Environmental Protection Agency requires the Colorado Water Quality
Division to approve design plans for water systems before they're built.
But the developers -- Prairie View Ranch Partners -- built the Morgan
County system without approval and, when the state found out in 2007, it
did nothing, waiting 10 years to issue a notice of violation.

The district has received nearly 200 notices since 2017 but only after CBS
News Colorado aired a story last month did the state finally issue an
enforcement order.

McCoppin said it's too little, too late.

"It's mostly been determined by engineers and other experts that we're
facing a total system replacement. Fire hydrants, pipeline, the treatment
plant -- it all just needs to be ripped out of the ground and replaced,"
he said.

Certified lab tests show the black sludge that has been collecting on
water filters in residents' homes is contaminated with radioactive lead,
uranium and radium.

The Water Quality Division says it only became aware of the sludge in
December of last year. But emails show residents complaining for years of
"indoor plumbing clogged with thick black sludge, like motor oil,"
"kitchen sinks and toilet tanks coated with thick black tar that will not
come off," "black chunks in sediment filters," "rust clumps" in water, and
water that is "crunchy with solid grains of manganese dioxide."

"Somebody should have stopped it. Somebody has the authority to stop it,"
said McCoppin.

Instead, he says, the state and county allowed the system to expand and
the sludge to worsen.

"It's gotten to the point where it's causing damage to the pumps, causing
damage to the system. Definitely causing private property damage to the
homeowners' water heaters and whatnot," McCoppin said.

McCoppin blames not only the water quality division but Morgan County
Commissioners, saying they rubber-stamped the service plan for the water
district despite all kinds of red flags.

Not only was the special district set up as a private for-profit company
when it's a tax exempt quasi-governmental entity, it was set up despite
another water district right across the street. State law requires
commissioners deny approval of a water district if there's already
adequate service available.

Morgan County Commissioner Jon Becker -- who didn't sit on the commission
when the district was approved -- said "It is not the board's
responsibility to do that due diligence."

"The county has the right to make sure things are being done properly,"
said McCoppin. "But they just simply turned a blind eye to everything."

He says that had commissioners asked for proof that the water "met
drinking water standards" as developers claimed in the service plan, they
would have learned tests by a state engineer already showed high levels of
uranium, selenium and radioactivity. But commissioners didn't ask and,
McCoppin says, because they allowed developers and out-of-state family
members to run the district's board, residents didn't learn what was in
their water for years, despite repeated notices from the state health
department telling the board to warn residents.

The Water Quality Control Division has now ordered the developer to pay
hazmat crews to remove the sludge and clean the tanks and distribution
lines, but McCoppin says, without a central treatment facility, it's a
temporary fix.

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"Within a few days of this project being completed, the manganese levels
and the sludge levels will be much lower, but they will inevitably get
back to where they are now if nothing changes," McCoppin said.

He says some home filtration systems have already turned black again, a
week after the sludge was removed.

The Water Quality Division has issued more than $8,000 in fines against
the developers and the water district, which is now being run by
residents, but it is only requiring them to pay about $800 of that if they
come up with a plan to fix everything by June. But McCoppin says that
means coming up with money for a complete system overhaul and central
treatment, which he says will cost over a million dollars. He says the
water district is already missing a million dollars from when the
developers ran the board.

He has asked the Colorado Attorney General's Office repeatedly for help,
but says he's only received automated replies in response. The EPA is now
trying to help by looking into possible federal funding.

--
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