{"id":23609,"date":"2019-05-13T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/dillon-discovers-high-lead-levels-in-drinking-water-at-testing-sites\/"},"modified":"2019-05-13T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-13T22:00:00","slug":"dillon-discovers-high-lead-levels-in-drinking-water-at-testing-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/dillon-discovers-high-lead-levels-in-drinking-water-at-testing-sites\/","title":{"rendered":"Dillon discovers high lead levels in drinking water at testing sites"},"content":{"rendered":"
The town of Dillon discovered hightened levels of lead in the drinking water of seven of 20 sites tested earlier this year. Officials are waiting on state approval to change the town’s water treatment process to help address the “aggressiveness” of the source water, which is leeching lead from outdated pipes and fixtures.<\/strong>
Photo by Skitterphoto from Pexels<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The town of Dillon is working to address high levels of lead discovered in the drinking water at some of its testing sites, according to officials.<\/p>\n

During recent testing mandated by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) at 20 different sites earlier this year, the town discovered that seven had lead levels in excess of the state\u2019s maximum allowable limit of 15 parts per billion. The finding comes just months after Frisco discovered a similar issue<\/a> in their sampling pool.<\/p>\n

Dillon officials stress that the town has good, clean surface water.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have lead in our source water,\u201d said Scott O\u2019Brien, Dillon\u2019s public works director. \u201cWe\u2019ve monitored for that, and it\u2019s not the issue \u2026 the issue is the materials that were used prior to 1987 for constructing homes, copper pipe with leaded solder. In addition to that, a lot of fixtures like faucets were constructed with either brass or bronze \u2014 medal alloys that contain lead.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien said that because the source water is so \u201caggressive,\u201d it\u2019s leeching the lead out of older pipes and fixtures at testing sites, resulting in the elevated rates. In determining aggressiveness, the town looks at four main factors: pH levels, alkalinity, temperature and hardness.<\/p>\n

The pH level in the water measures how acidic or basic the water is on a scale of 0-14 \u2014 anything below seven is considered acidic, and anything higher is considered basic. In general, high acidity means the water is more corrosive, and more likely to leech metal ions like lead and copper. Dillon\u2019s source water is naturally about 7.3, or slightly leaning towards the basic side.<\/p>\n

Alkalinity is a measure of the buffering ability of the water, essentially the ratio of hydrogen ions versus hydroxide ions that determines the water\u2019s ability to neutralize acid. O\u2019Brien noted that Dillon\u2019s water has low alkalinity. Temperature is self-explanatory, literally describing how hot or cold the water is \u2014 wherein hotter water is more reactive and aggressive than cold water. Hardness measures the mineral concentration in the water, or what it\u2019s naturally picking up as it flows along. Because Dillon uses its source water so quickly, it is relatively soft.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re the first in line to pick it up, and it doesn\u2019t have the chance to pick up these other minerals and other things that help reduce the aggressiveness of the water,\u201d said O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

This is a problem that Dillon has dealt with in the past. The town\u2019s testing also returned high lead levels in both 2012 and 2014, and officials have been working with the state since to address the issue. In 2014, the town attempted to adjust the pH levels up to about 8.5 on the scale, which appeared to have worked over the last five years. Though, due to recent changes in regulations from the state level \u2014 which essentially requires towns to zero in on high-risk testing sites to determine the worst-case scenarios for water quality issues \u2014 new issues are being discovered.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo get a representative sample pool they don\u2019t want us to go over the distribution system geographically, and sample it spread out,\u201d said Mark Helman, chief water plant operator. \u201cThey want us to sample these particular sites built from 1983 to 1987 (before the Lead Contamination Control Act in 1988) they know are going to give us the worst results. \u2026 This is a process of us learning where the worst sites are that we have, testing those sites, seeing how our water is doing at those sites, and if we have a problem we want to address the worst case scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both O\u2019Brien and Helman noted that they already have a plan to try and address the issue of overly aggressive water. The plan is to add soda ash \u2014 sodium carbonate or baking soda \u2014 during the water treatment process to increase pH levels, alkalinity and hardness to the water to reduce aggressiveness. However, because it includes changes to the plant, the new process must first be signed off on by the state.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien said that once the state approves the town\u2019s new water treatment methods they\u2019ll be able to implement the new process quickly, though the review process could take between 30 and 60 days.<\/p>\n

Individuals whose water tested high for lead have already been notified, and officials are saying that anyone concerned about lead in their water or interested in getting theirs tested should reach out to the town at 970-262-3426, or to Mark Helman directly at 970-262-3428. Additionally, officials say that one of the easiest ways to mitigate potential lead exposure is to run your faucet for a few seconds to clear stagnant water that may have been leeching lead from pipes. Helman said that once the water turns cold you\u2019re probably getting fresh water from the main outside. Second homeowners should also take the time to flush the stagnant water out of the pipes before using it when they return to their property after spending time away.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The town of Dillon discovered hightened levels of lead in the drinking water of seven of 20 sites tested earlier this year. Officials are waiting on state approval to change the town’s water treatment process to help address the “aggressiveness” of the source water, which is leeching lead from outdated pipes and fixtures.Photo by Skitterphoto […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23609","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-10 21:52:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}