Our Carbondale service locations span from Redstone, to Aspen Glen and up Cattle Creek, throughout Missouri Heights until the start of Cottonwood Pass, and all of El Jebel. We treat a number of clients on wells, springs, and even municipal water. Carbondale’s agricultural history has played a large role in the present day water quality.
The most common water contaminants we find throughout all the areas of the 81623 zip code include: microbes, high levels of total dissolved solids (TDS), heavy metals, sulfate, turbidity, and extreme hardness. The most common microbe we detect in water, especially near today’s ranches, is coliform bacteria. The heavy metals we detect most frequently are iron, lithium, manganese, silica, strontium, uranium, and zinc. Closer to town, we’ve also successfully treated high levels of copper.
Bacteria and microbes can pose immediate health risks to your friends, families and pets. The TDS readings let us know whether or not water is fit for human consumption – and our TDS testing usually indicates the water is not fit. While some metals do pose a variety of health risks, other metals cause staining, scratching, smells, and other nuisances throughout the property. Of course, calcium and magnesium cause frustrating hard water buildup, which can decrease the lifespan of common household appliances. Carbondale has minerals like silica and iron that can cause scratching or staining on surfaces that come in contact with water. Sulfur will cause foul smells throughout your property.
Generally, Colorado has hard water because of its rich subterranean mineral content. Water throughout Colorado is considered moderately hard-very hard, depending on where you are. The levels of hardness can sometimes vary with the seasons: water can be slightly harder in the winter when cold temperatures freeze water supplies, allowing water to absorb more minerals. Systems that rely on groundwater (like most of the systems in Garfield, Eagle, and Pitkin counties) have greater hardness than systems that rely on surface water (like much of the Front Range) because minerals will dissolve into the supply as the water moves through soil and rocks. Contact Aspen WaterWise to discover how these minerals can impact your daily life, and to learn ways to monitor and control which minerals you allow into your household or your workplace.
Our current water quality can be dictated by population growth, urbanization, mining, agricultural practices, recreation, and even river modifications like the construction of dams or diversions. Wells, including the municipal wells, are prone to contamination from forestry practices, agricultural practices and agricultural runoff, waste from livestock, urban recreation, wastewater discharge, leaking storage tank sites, solid waste sites, existing or abandoned mining sites, residential or road runoff, and more. This article by Colorado State University describes in detail how these processes mentioned above affect our water resources.
Please feel free to contact Aspen WaterWise if you have questions or concerns about your water quality. We would be happy to schedule a consultation and discuss our treatment options with you. Throughout Carbondale, we’ve reduced TDS levels from above 1500 ppm to below 40 ppm, removed bacteria from a number of homes and ranches, cleared water by treating turbidity and silica, and delivered pure, polished water by removing heavy metals and other contaminants.
Carbondale’s 2022 and 2021 water quality reports can be found on this webpage. More information about contaminants and their potential health effects can be obtained by calling the Environmental Protection Agency’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline (1-800-426-4791) or by visiting their website.
