Tampering possible after THC found in Hugo's water supply

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slimvictor

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The town of Hugo’s approximately 720 residents have been warned not to drink or cook using the local water supply after authorities found evidence of THC.

Cpt. Michael Yowell with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office says investigators have found evidence that someone may have tampered with one of the town’s five wells. At this point, police don’t know how much THC is in the water, or how it got there.

It’s something that one prosecutor said he hasn’t seen in his 22 year career.

The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office was first told about the issue with the town’s water supply on Thursday afternoon. Hugo Public Works first learned about it after, while trying to administer a drug test, an employer in the area noticed that the town’s water was positive for THC.


cont at
http://www.9news.com/news/health/thc-in-water-of-colorado-town/279189178
 
THC Water Scare: Signs Show Someone Tampered With Well

HUGO, Colo. (AP) – Officials told residents of a small Colorado community not to drink or shower in tap water Thursday because one of the town’s wells may have been contaminated with THC, marijuana’s intoxicating chemical.

No illnesses have been linked to the water in Hugo, a town of about 730 people some 100 miles southeast of Denver, said Lincoln County Public Health Director Susan Kelly.

THC was detected in tests conducted with field kits, although other field tests were negative, sheriff’s Capt. Michael Yowell said.

More definitive laboratory tests were underway, he said.

The field tests weren’t capable of showing how much THC was in the water, but only whether the chemical was there, he said.

Investigators found signs that one of Hugo’s five wells had been tampered with, but they hadn’t determined whether someone deliberately tainted the water, Yowell said.

The FBI and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation are helping with the case, he said.

Hugo prohibits marijuana cultivation, product manufacturing, testing facilities and retail marijuana stores, although those activities are legal elsewhere in the state.

Peter Perrone, owner of a marijuana testing facility in the Denver area, expressed doubt that THC could be in the water. The chemical isn’t water-soluble, he told The Denver Post.

Yowell said investigators were aware of that but had to follow up because of the field test results.

He said a company that administers employee drug tests was the first to detect THC in Hugo’s water. A tester sampled tap water, assuming it would be negative, but it was positive.

It’s unlikely that consuming pot-tainted water would cause lasting health effects, said Mark Salley, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Health and Environment.

cont at
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2016/07/21/thc-water-scare-signs-show-someone-tampered-with-well/
 
Colorado town finds THC in its water, warns residents not to drink or bathe in it

This town on Colorado’s Eastern Plains warned its residents not to drink, bathe in or cook with its tap water on Thursday because officials said multiple preliminary tests of the water came back positive for THC, the main psychoactive compound in marijuana.

Residents were told not even to let their pets drink the water.

(...)

Concerns about the water were first raised by a Hugo company using quick “field tests” to check employees for THC, Yowell said. The simple tests are similar in function to home pregnancy tests in that they can return only two results: positive or negative.

Yowell said the company, which he did not identify, had been getting inconsistent results and decided to test a vial of tap water, expecting it to be negative. Instead, the test came back positive, and the company called authorities.

Yowell said Lincoln County officials conducted 10 other field tests, using two different types of test kits, on the town’s water and six came back positive. Authorities later isolated the positive results to a single well — well No. 1, about a mile south of Hugo’s small downtown. When sheriff’s deputies investigated, Yowell said, they found signs of forced entry at the well, though it is unclear when the damage may have occurred.

(...)

“It would take more product than any of us could afford to contaminate a city water supply to the extent that people would suffer any effects,” Dr. John Fox, Lincoln County’s health officer, said in a statement.

Peter Perrone, who owns Wheat Ridge cannabis testing facility Gobi Analytical, said cannabinoids such as THC or CBD “are in no way soluble in water.”

“There is zero possibility that there’s anything like THC in the Hugo water,” Perrone said.

“You know how oil and water separate? It’s the same with cannabinoids. They’re lipophilic, which means they’re fat-loving. They would never be soluble in water. In order for people to solubilize these cannabinoids in their drinks, for marijuana products like the Dixie Elixirs sold in dispensaries, it takes a lot of work. It takes so many steps to get a fat-soluble thing like a cannabinoid into something like a drink.”

Joseph Evans, a former EPA scientist who now serves as lab director at Denver-based marijuana testing lab Nordic Analytical, agreed.

“The one thing that bothers me about this story from a scientific perspective is that THC is so insoluble in water,” Evans said. “I can’t imagine, I can’t even fathom the idea that THC would be in water at any type of solubility to create any kind of health hazard.”

(...)

The town’s restaurant, Jean’s Family Kitchen, closed because it couldn’t use the water. The soda machines at the Loaf ‘N Jug fell silent.

The high school’s 6-man football team had to cancel its summer camp because players couldn’t shower afterward, said Jake McClendon, a fullback and linebacker on the team.

“I thought it was a joke at first,” he said.

cont at
http://www.denverpost.com/2016/07/21/colorado-town-thc-in-water/
 
I Bet if they hadn't made the warning and life went on just as it should there would have been about 720 healthy, incredibly happy people walking around expressing their good will towards man.
 
No THC in Hugo's water; Test kits were false positive, authorities say

HUGO, Colo. -- It is once again safe to drink the tap water in the town of Hugo after test results released early Saturday by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation found no THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, was ever in the water.

An investigation into the water supply started after a local company testing its water found THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office said field testing kits were brought in to check the water supply. Six of the those 10 water samples also tested positive for THC.

The Sheriff's Office announced early Saturday that those test kits provided a false positive result.

Cont

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/new...r-test-kit-was-false-positive-authorities-say
 
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