Monument-area water districts taking steps to remove radium from water supplies

EL PASO COUNTY, Colorado (KRDO) – The Donala Water & Sanitation District, which spans an area between North Colorado Springs and Monument, recently announced to its customers that it has violated federal maximum standards for radium in its drinking water.

According to a notice sent to customers on August 20, Donala announced that it learned of the Environmental Protection Agency violation on July 23.

The EPA found that the average combined radium content last year was 1.7 picocurias per liter above the federal standard of 5 picocurias per liter.

Donala said the situation was not an emergency but advised customers to consider using bottled water or other alternative water sources.

Combined radium is radium-226 or radium-228 and is considered a chronic health hazard that would not pose a health hazard until many years of drinking contaminated water above the EPA standard.

Donala’s release stated that long-term use could put pregnant women, infants, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems at increased risk of cancer; the notice also advised people in the high-risk category to see their doctor to drink contaminated water.

Humans store radium in their bones where it can continue to give off radiation, so it is important to limit exposure.

The higher levels of radium are believed to be caused by increased demand for water that stirs up radium, naturally found in the Denver Basin aquifer, which supplies the area with groundwater for human consumption and consumption.

To address the problem, Donala has reduced or discontinued water abstraction from wells and treatment plants with the highest levels of radium, and is using more surface water treated and supplied by Colorado Springs Utilities.

Donala said it will also test all of its drill holes for radium and expects the results to be available by October.

There are also plans to use chemical water treatment, which uses chemicals to collect radium in larger particles that can be filtered out.

Donala said solving the radium problem shouldn’t have a material impact on water prices for its customers; The aim is to reduce the radium level well below the EPA standard or to remove it entirely.

High concentrations of radium are a persistent problem in the monument area. The city of Monument is said to have spent $ 1.5 million on a new filtration system.

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