Government Officials Say Not To Drink Our Water.

Hey there all first off I am not sure where to post this, I keep trying to post in different forums and it won't let me for some reason so I am getting good at retyping all this if nothing else. Ok I work at a ski resort in northern California juust outside of Truckee. Yesterday, Nov. 1st, I was up there doing some preseason prep. I was surprised to find yellow signs at every water faucet and drinking fountain. These signs said that the water has been contaminated and is not to be drank under any circumstance.

I gathered what info I could from those that were there. Appearantly the day before, Oct. 31st, some type of government officials came through and posted all these signs and warned all who were present. Unfortunatly No one new for sure what department these people were from. What information they were told consisted of the water has been contaminted by something, it's not our fault, that the contamination was happening somewhere before it got to us. Those that I spoke to were fairly concerned because for one they weren't told what the problem was and most of them are very local to the area. And it would stand to reason that if the contamination is coming from somewhere else before it hits us then others could be affected as well. I don't know if this next part is related but those who have been up there seem to think it is. Appearently there are a few preseason employees who have been up there working and they, just this last week, got sick with very flu like symptoms that seem to affect their stomachs, throwing up a lot and what not.

Alright I am not to sure what to make off all this, as far as I know this kind of thing could be more common than I know or there could be some very simple reason for it. But on the off chance that it isn't I thought I would post this here to see what you all thought and if anyone knew anything on what was going on here.

Wow, that sounds really creepy. Any chance you can take a photo of the signs for us?

Do you happen to know where your water supply comes from? Is there anything being reported in the local papers?

Jemison

I have been kicking myself for not taking a photo of the signs, There wasn't much info on them. I will be back up there this tuesday though and will definitly get a pic then. I am not local to the area, I commute 60 miles each way so I don't know about the local papers or where the water comes from. I am however looking into all that now to see what I can find.

I'll bet bet something was mixed in with the floride this time. "It's not our fault." Hey guys, I failed at my job and broke our trust to guard your water, but it's not MY fault."


Please to be making more details 1Veritas S and F!

Well I have searched through the local news paper, The Sierra Sun, and nothing seems to match up with this so they don't seem to be covering it which I do find a little odd. I did find this there though and thought it to be interesting although probably unrelated I would suggest checking out this link though all the same.
Link

Also to solarseaman I am sorry I should have worded that better. What I ment by we're not at fault is those of us that work at the resort. It happened somewhere alse and is affecting us is what I ment.

From what I can find the drinking water comes directly from the Truckee River. If that is the case wouldn't all that water be well filtered? Which leads me to believe the contamination may have been from something happening at the water treatment plant.or after. The resort I speak of is about eight miles out of truckee so not a lot of area for problems to occur I would think. I have been searching and still can't find any official statement about this which I am starting to think seems a little odd. No one where I work was told not to speak about the situation, however no one seems to know whats going on either.

God, not a fluoride problem.

Sounds and looks like a bacteria problem. Could be from a water main break to just inactive lines that have iron bacteria growing.

You will occasionally hear of boil orders from water contamination until the water utility makes repairs and disinfects the system.

Would be interested in outcome.

Are you talking about Squaw Valley? Could you possibly contact local officials for statements regarding the contamination? how about a phone call to the water utility company? Anything other than "I saw" "I heard"... this could be extremely important or could be nothing with the information provided so far.

I anxiously await further information and will do a little research on my own as well.

I can't imagine that the MRSA has anything to do with the contaminated water as it cannot be spread through water.

I agree with a previous poster that it could be a break in the water line somewhere and they are taking extreme caution just in case there is some contamination.

Hopefully we can help you get to the bottom of this.

Jemison

I am at this point assuming the OP is talking about Squaw valley since that is the closest well known resort area near Truckee. If that assumption is correct, then the source of the water is as follows: (taken from the squaw valley public service district website www.svpsd.org)

The water in Squaw Valley comes primarily from a single source aquifer located under the valley floor in the east end of the ski area parking lot. The Horizontal Wells are located on the mountain above the Resort at Squaw Creek. The distribution system, or system of piping used to convey the water, is divided into three pressure zones. Zone 2 and 3 consist of the subdivision and the hotel at the Resort at Squaw Creek, and that water is a blend from Zone 1 and the Horizontal Wells. All other customers are in Zone 1. Zone 1 water is a mix of Wells 1, 2, 3, and 5R. Most of the tests performed on the water are taken at the wells. Tests for Microbiological, and Lead/Copper are also taken at representative points in the distribution system, or at customer kitchen taps.

I also shot them off a little email asking about possible contamination in the resort area and we will see what they say. and if this isnt the area the OP was referring too... oh well, no harm hehe

Hey there. No I am not talking about Squaw but it is in the area so I wouldn't be surprised if they were having the contaminations as well. There are eight resorts in the immediate area around Truckee. We are located on the I-80 side. I would say where exactly I work but I don't know how wise that would be in this situation. Only people who work in marketing are aloud to speak about the mountain, it's nothing to do with the issue at hand. I had to learn this lesson the hard way, about ten years ago now a customer came up to me and was asking me about snow conditions and things. I was honest with this person and even though I said nothing bad about us I still got in trouble because it turns out that the guy was a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle who was coming to do a report on us and he never showed up to our marketing department, appearently he got enough from me.

I ended up getting very busy yesterday helping a friend move and it looks like more of the same today so I wasn't able to continue investigating this yesterday and am not sure how much I can get done today but I'll do my best. I'm planning on calling my work today to get the phone number off the signs. I will definitly keep everyone posted on this and what the final outcome is when that comes to light. Also I would very much love to hear any information any of you good people come across, and thank you for your help. I wasn't aware something as seemigly small an issue as a broken pipe could be the cause for this type of thing. I am hoping something mundain like this is the case.

On a side note if I may. I have an employee how works for me who does this as a hobby because he loves to ski. This person is Lockheeds president of the TMOS project and I have always been told by those that were here before me that he with his history knows those government secrets we will never know about. Anyways I have been thinking of somethings I could ask him about this season one of which is I am interested in what ever he can tell me about the Lockheed patents on the two flying disks. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on this, I would love to hear them.

[edit on 3-11-2008 by 1Veritas]

Hello all. Just back from a long days work. What I have been able to find out is that a water station on Donner Summits filter system gave out about a week before my original post. We were told they didn't notice the problem for about a week. Apperantly they noticed at one point that the water coming out on the filtered side was cloudy. I'm told that Truckee isn't affected but that donner summit and the donner lakes area is. The word at the moment is that it will be at least another week before the problem is fixed. Now our problem is that we open for our winter buisness to the public tomorrow but we have no drinking water we have bottled water for sale but thats it. And the cafateria will be using bottled water for cooking and cleaning. Anyways I thought those interested would like to hear the news.

[edit on 5-11-2008 by 1Veritas]