XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.mobilehome, alt.politics.marijuana   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: colorado.the.dipshit.state@nytimes.com   
      
   On 10 Oct 2021, Rudy Canoza  posted some   
   news:gzF8J.6298$2m1.3765@fx26.iad:   
      
   > Colorado is a fucked up place anyway.  They are all stoned now and the   
   > lack of oxygen has messed up their brains.  They elected a queer to be   
   > governor and they want to take your guns.   
      
   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.   
      
   Elephant Rock's woes are part of a larger problem at Colorado's 800-plus   
   mobile home parks, where water and private wells have been under-tested   
   for decades, said state legislators who have regularly received   
   complaints about smelly, discolored water that tastes bad and could be   
   hazardous to residents' health.   
      
   While no data is available to show how widespread the issue is, some   
   legislators said the complaints they've received make them believe many   
   mobile home parks don't meet federal drinking water standards. Until   
   recently, the state didn't require testing.   
      
   “We don’t know other than what residents are telling us," said state   
   Rep. Andrew Boesenecker, a Democrat from Fort Collins. "There are pieces   
   that are alarming to anybody, like taste and odor, and where you   
   wouldn’t want to put your kids in the tub at night.”   
      
   Many mobile home park residents have sought help from the Colorado   
   Poverty Law Project, a nonprofit organization that works to prevent   
   homelessness, the project's deputy director, Jack Regenbogen, said.   
      
   “We’ve heard from residents that the water is pretty much undrinkable,”   
   Regenbogen said. "We've seen pictures of brown water."   
      
   He said many residents of mobile home parks have low incomes and are   
   afraid to file water contamination complaints out of fear they will be   
   evicted from the only homes they can afford. The median rent in Colorado   
   is $2,200 a month, according to Zillow. In comparison, rent at mobile   
   home parks can be as low as $600 a month.   
      
   Records from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment   
   show that residents from about 15 mobile home parks have filed 37   
   complaints since tracking began in March 2020. The complaints cite   
   illness, discoloration, bad taste and failure by park owners to notify   
   residents of poor water quality.   
      
   Parks where residents have complained include Mountainside Estates in   
   Golden, Peak View Park in Woodland Park and Elephant Rock.   
      
   A survey conducted last year by Voces Unidas de la Montanas, a   
   Colorado-based Latino advocacy group, found that 40% of Latinos who live   
   in mobile home parks in the state don't trust the water.   
      
   “How do we still have these communities where these environmental   
   injustices are happening?” said Alex Sanchez, the group's president.   
      
   At Apple Tree mobile home park outside Aspen, resident Danule Feichko,   
   21, said the landowners don’t seem to care about the 900 or so residents   
   who are forced to contend with yellowish tap water.   
      
   Park manager Henry Hendrickson declined to comment and referred   
   questions to owner Investment Property Group, which didn't respond to   
   several phone and email messages.   
      
   “I haven’t drank the water in three years,” said Feichko, adding that he   
   plans to move because of the water. “We have the worst water that you’ll   
   ever see.”   
      
   His neighbor Matgahta DeSantiago, 63, also is apprehensive.   
      
   “I don’t drink the water. It’s contaminated,” she said.   
      
      
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