Residents were even told not to let their pets drink the water, the Post said.
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The well has since been sealed off, according to the Denver Post, but the 720 or so residents of Hugo were told to avoid the town’s water for at least 48 hours while the possibly contaminated water flushed its way out of the system – meaning no consuming the water or even showering in the water.
It has not been confirmed that the potential contamination was deliberate, Yowell said.
Not only are residents advised not to drink the water, they are warned they should not bathe or cook with it, either.
The discovery was made by a local company following simple “field tests” which returned a “positive” result for the presence of what health authorities have described as “marijuana THC-related”, reported Reuters.
Volunteers helped distribute bottled water to people in the area on Friday and will continue to do so until 10 p.m., resuming on Saturday at 8 a.m. on the east side of Hugo’s town hall.
Health effects from ingesting drinking water contaminated with THC depend on several factors, including how much THC is in the water, how much water a person drinks, and how long the person is drinking the water, the department said.
Officials are distributing thousands of water bottles to residents in the meantime, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office announced on Twitter.
When the company chose to test the water just in case, they promptly informed officials when the results came out positive for THC.
Captain Michael Yowell, of the sheriff’s office, said there was evidence that one of the town’s five water wells – Well No 1 – was tampered with, and that the FBI and Colorado Bureau of Investigation have joined the probe. According to that newspaper, field tests performed on employees by a private company observed inconsistent results in employee drug screening. “When you have a presumptive positive of THC in our water supply, we take that very seriously”, Yowell said. There are only 62 registered medical marijuana patients in all of Lincoln County.
That’s because, as any college survivor will know, THC is extremely insoluble in water.
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Social media comments had alerted the Sheriff’s Office to the fact that THC is not water soluble, and Yowell acknowledged that at the press conference.
