Albuquerque Journal
By Jennifer McKee
December 06, 2000 -- The beleaguered Hidden Valley Estates water system is — or maybe isn't — dangerously contaminated with parasitic worms and plastic residues.
It all depends on who you believe.
According to an official letter dated Nov. 28 and signed by Angela Cross, a supervisor with the New Mexico Environment Department's drinking water bureau, a chemical called Di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) was found in the small Jemez Mountain community's drinking water in a test conducted last June.
The chemical was found in quantities greater than those allowed by federal drinking water standards. The letter requested that the owner of the water system, Jos�ontoya of Los Lunas, publicly announce the contamination.
But according to Bill Bartels,, bureau chief of the drinking water bureau, the June test was inconclusive, Cross' letter was premature, and the water is likely safe.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water, DEHP is a common ingredient in rubber, cellulose and styrene. Short-term exposure can cause digestive problems, nausea and vertigo. Long-term exposure leads to reproductive and liver problems, as well as cancer.
But there's no plastic plant anywhere near the water system, Bartels said, and no plastic pipe at the point where state scientists took their water samples. He thinks the finding could easily be contamination from the air or plastics at the laboratory where the water was tested.
"There's numerous ways this shows up," he said. "It's not infrequent."
Follow-up tests usually show no contamination, and that's another reason the alert sent out to Hidden Valley water users jumped the gun, Bartels said.
Until last spring, state regulators didn't know the small, privately-owned water system existed. They certainly didn't know a collection of septic tanks and an outhouse were clustered around the spring that serves as the system's primary water source. Initial tests on the system turned up a salad of contaminants ranging from bacteria to metals.
Since October, the state has been trucking water to Hidden Valley.
Bartels said the department now must test the community's water four times in the next year and take the average of those contamination levels as a baseline. Consequently, he said, the results from the one June test cannot be conclusive.
"It's too early to tell," he said.
Bartels said he's sending out a follow-up letter in the next week that outlines that argument and which should quell any concerns Hidden Valley residents have.
Nancy Blecha, a Hidden Valley water user, doesn't buy that. She thinks DEHP is in the water and that she and her family can tack yet another contaminant onto the list of unhealthy things coming out of their tap.
"I am appalled. I am horrified," she said.
Blecha and the other 11 houses on the system also learned recently that tiny worm larvae were also found in their water in March.
"They did not tell us we had parasites in our water," she said. "That's what we're all sick with."
The homeowners have since formed their own water association, dug their own well and hope to be off the contaminated system by the end of the year. But Blecha and Matthew Holmes, executive director of the New Mexico Rural Water Association, a group that is helping Hidden Valley get safe water, harbor doubts about hooking up clean water to pipes that could be crawling with microscopic parasites.
Holmes said he's trying to rally a volunteer army and get some donated materials to help Hidden Valley rebuild its entire pipe system.
"We're concerned," he said.
Bartels said the parasite tests are also inconclusive. Two state tests showed moderate to mild worm contamination, he said. But such parasites are common in surface water and might just show that runoff is ending up in the spring that serves the water system. Either way, the levels found were far below those which would spur a deeper investigation.
"It's not a disturbing level," he said.
Bartels said he thought the saga of Hidden Valley water was a "success." A contaminated water supply is getting fixed.
Holmes also sees a silver lining in the story.
"Hidden Valley is to be commended," he said. "Pretty soon, they'll have a whole new system and it will be a safe source of drinking water."
While Blecha said she's glad to be getting safe water, she also said the story is far from over and far from a success. She and her neighbors are paying "through the nose" for the new water system and she for one doesn't feel like the state takes their concerns and possibly water-related health problems seriously.
"Water kills people," she said. "The state wants to play it down and make it look like, 'Oh, it's just a little chemical you and your children are drinking.' "
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