Many mobile home park residents in Colorado are afraid to drink the water
PALMER LAKE, Colo. — Every day, retired Army veteran Donald Simmons must make a decision: pay $5 to shower at the nearest truck stop or risk taking a shower at home in contaminated water.
PALMER LAKE, Colo. — Every day, retired Army veteran Donald Simmons must make a decision: pay $5 to shower at the nearest truck stop or risk taking a shower at home in contaminated water.
Lately, he has been reluctantly showering at the house, but he refuses to drink the tap water, fearing it will jeopardize his long-term health.
“It could cause cancer. Nobody knows what’s going on,” said Simmons, 68. "You have to shower."
Simmons has lived at Elephant Rock Mobile Home Park, a small community about 25 miles south of Colorado Springs, for 13 years, and state officials say its water quality violations date back 15 years.
The two private groundwater wells that provide water to Elephant Rock contain high levels of radium, a cancerous radioactive metal, according to state officials.
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