Pubdate: Fri, 22 Jul 2016
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2016 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Authors: John Ingold and Jesse Paul

THC CONTAMINATES HUGO'S WATER

Hugo) This town on Colorado's Eastern Plains warned its residents not 
to drink, bathe in or cook with its tap water Thursday because 
officials said multiple preliminary tests of the water came back 
positive for THC, the main psychoactive compound in marijuana.

Residents were told not even to let their pets drink the water.

There have been no reports of illnesses or any symptoms of impairment 
from drinking the water, officials said at a news conference Thursday 
evening. Deeper tests, which could be completed Friday, are needed to 
verify the presence of THC and to determine the level of contamination, if any.

"We are checking to make sure this isn't because of the field test 
kit - that it isn't a false positive," said Capt. Michael Yowell of 
the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office.

But Yowell said there were enough troubling signs for officials to 
take quick action.

Concerns about the water were first raised by a Hugo company using 
quick "field tests" to check employees for THC, Yowell said. The 
simple tests are similar in function to home pregnancy tests in that 
they can return only two results: positive or negative.

Yowell said the company, which he did not identify, had been getting 
inconsistent results and decided to test a vial of tap water, 
expecting it to be negative. Instead, the test came back positive, 
and the company called authorities.

Yowell said officials conducted 10 other field tests, using two 
different types of test kits, on the town's water and six came back 
positive. Authorities later isolated the positive results to a single 
well - well No. 1, about a mile south of Hugo's small downtown. When 
sheriff's deputies investigated, Yowell said, they found signs of 
forced entry at the well, though it is unclear when the damage may 
have occurred.

"I wouldn't be doing my job for my community if we just wrote this 
off," Yowell said.

The well has been sealed and secured, but Yowell said it will take 
time for water to flush through the lines. Agents from the FBI and 
Colorado Bureau of Investigation are participating in the probe, 
Yowell said, and a representative from the 18th Judicial District 
Attorney's Office was also in Hugo.

Screening stations are being set up for worried residents, and water 
is being trucked in. Health officials said the public should avoid 
the town's water for at least the next 48 hours and report any 
effects to the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center.

Hugo Mayor Tom Lee said he was shocked by news of the possibly 
tainted water. He said there hasn't been the kind of acrimonious 
debate over marijuana in Hugo that there has been in other Colorado 
communities.

"We'll figure it out," Lee said. "It just blew my mind."

Hugo is a Lincoln County town of about 720 people that sits about 90 
miles east of Colorado Springs and 15 miles southeast of Limon. There 
are no commercial marijuana operations in Lincoln County. The entire 
county has only 62 medical marijuana patients, according to the state 
Health Department.

Mark Salley, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Health 
and Environment, said a state toxicologist is assessing what kind of 
health effects the potential contamination could have. Salley said - 
as with marijuana edibles or other products - the impacts would 
probably vary based on the amount of water consumed and the concentration.

But others cast doubt on the dangers of THC-contaminated water or 
whether it's even possible to spike tap water with marijuana.

"It would take more product than any of us could afford to 
contaminate a city water supply to the extent that people would 
suffer any effects," Dr. John Fox, Lincoln County's health officer, 
said in a statement.

Peter Perrone, who owns Wheat Ridge cannabis testing facility Gobi 
Analytical, said cannabinoids such as THC or CBD "are in no way 
soluble in water."

"There is zero possibility that there's anything like THC in the Hugo 
water," Perrone said.

Yowell said authorities in Hugo are aware that THC and water shouldn't mix.

"But when you have a presumptive positive of THC in our water supply, 
we take that very seriously," he said.

Regardless, Thursday's announcement upended life in Hugo.

The town's restaurant, Jean's Family Kitchen, closed because it 
couldn't use the water. The soda machines at the Loaf 'N Jug fell silent.

The high school's 6-man football team had to cancel its summer camp 
because players couldn't shower afterward, said Jake McClendon, a 
fullback and linebacker on the team.

"I thought it was a joke at first," he said.

Lucas Hohl, owner of Osborne's Supermarket, said an influx of 
customers came in seeking bottled water.

Hohl likened the increase in traffic to the "mad rush of sales when a 
blizzard is coming in."

Some, like 90-year-old Maye Gene Lee, a former mayor of the town, 
were angry at the possibility that saboteurs may have struck the 
town's water supply.

"If I could have gotten my hands on them, I would have taken care of 
them myself," she said. "We shouldn't have to worry about that. And 
if it happens out here in Hugo, Colo., it can happen anyplace."

Others, though, greeted the news with a sense of humor. Patsie Smith, 
another former mayor, said she received a reverse 911-type message 
shortly after 3 p.m. telling residents not to drink the water because 
there could be THC in it. She chuckled at the thought.

"I might have to go drink some water," she joked.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom