Article published May 26, 2005

Water Board finalizing stance
Moving animal research site recommended in long term
 

By KEVIN DARST
KevinDarst@coloradoan.com
 

Moving a Colorado Division of Wildlife animal research facility away from the city's raw water treatment plant is one of the long-term recommendations the city's Water Board will examine today.

A Water Board subcommittee said Wednesday there's no evidence that city water is in danger because of the proximity of the research site, 4330 W. LaPorte Ave., which is across the street from the water plant, but that it makes sense to create a "buffer" around the treatment plant.

"Do we really want sick animals of any kind around our water supply?" subcommittee and Water Board member Gina Janette asked.

At its outdoor facility, the DOW studies chronic wasting disease, a brain-wasting disease in deer and elk. Sick and healthy animals - including deer, elk, cattle and bighorn sheep - live in separate pens, and work at the site has led to much of the current knowledge about the illness.

Chronic wasting disease is related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy - also called mad cow disease in cattle, scrapie in sheep and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

The Water Board likely will decide today which recommendations to give to the City Council.

Two vocal residents, one from Boulder and one from Wellington, have questioned whether it's safe to have the research facility next door to the treatment plant, which produces drinking water for about 200,000 customers in the Fort Collins area. They say the malformed proteins, called prions, that cause chronic wasting disease and similar illnesses could blow from the research site into open ponds at the treatment plant that supply a small amount of water to city customers.

Research done at the DOW facility indicates the disease can live in the soil.

Experts say the risk of infection is miniscule and that a species barrier makes it unlikely that chronic wasting disease would jump from deer and elk to humans.

Colorado State University owns the land the research facility is on and began its own animal research at the site in the mid-1960s. The water treatment plant began operation in 1968.

Short-term recommendations from the water subcommittee Wednesday included continual evaluation of new chronic wasting disease research and prion-monitoring technology. Prions currently can’t be detected in water.

The committee also recommended that the DOW use the best management practices available to minimize the risk of prions escaping the research site.

The Larimer County Board of Health and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment have said there is no evidence that the research site threatens public health.

Committee members said Wednesday that the city should pursue a buffer around its treatment plant, regardless of chronic wasting disease concerns.

“It’s in the interest of the city that they move,” said committee and Water Board member Johannes Gessler, who also said the issue was not an “immediate crisis.”