Residents of Colorado’s Lake County are turning to boiling tap water to protect their health. The culprit is a mine pool of contaminated water that has plagued the community for more then a month.
The Lake County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) responded declaring the county a State of Emergency on February 13, 2008. In an April 1, 2008 letter to Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, the BOCC ridiculed the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) for a lack of involvement in the solution. The letter states, “CDPHE continues to drag its feet claiming no authority, no funding and no interest in any additional liability” along with “excuses for not even having completed a basic analysis.” According to the letter, CDPHE only agreed to assist with drilling efforts at the Canterbury Tunnel, that contributes clean water to the rising mine pool. The letter pleas to Gov. Ritter stating: “…you personally signed the emergency declaration…If you turn your back at this crucial moment and the Lake County public water supply and the Arkansas River suffers damage, it will be on your leadership watch. You have taken the position of the "environmental governor," for which we applaud you. We now ask that you live up to it…”
The “combined agency response” is proving a key factor to solving the groundwater contamination issue, as the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have started pumping operations to remove the contamination. However, the solution remains unresolved until the CDPHE involvement is rectified.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
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