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Show Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, September 14-17, 2019 Continued from A-6 Tainted water the system, potentially sickening hundreds of unsuspecting campers. In fact, the state says the disinfection system “is not an acceptable remedy,” and rules require water-system operators to prevent bacteria from entering the drinking water system in the first place. “Disinfection shall not be used to mask ongoing contamination and shall not be used as a substitute for correcting deficiencies,” according to the state rule. In a written statement to High Country News, Utah Division of Drinking Water Director Marie Owens said her department worked with the LDS Church to ensure the water source provided to Aspencrest camp complies with state standards. “The system responded to the division in September 2018 that they were complying with the requirement to continuously disinfect.” Owens did not respond to a request to clarify why the division in a 2015 memo said long-term disinfection was unacceptable. Meanwhile, Aspencrest is not the first, or only, LDS-operated water system to experience problems to which the Division of Drinking Water turned a blind eye. Three mountain ranges to the west of Aspencrest, a standard-issue LDS chapel rises out of one of the West’s most barren deserts. The Dugway chapel, with its tan brick facade and white spires, serves an isolated congregation of Latter-day Saints, most of whom work for the U.S. Army on a base that, according to its official website, tests biological and chemical weapons. Like many remote communities, Dugway, Utah, is served by multiple small, privately held water systems. One of these systems — consisting of a single well, pump and filtration unit — is owned and operated by the LDS Church to provide water during services for a congregation of about 200. 7 A lab test, top, of drinking wa- ter at the LDS church in Dugway, Utah, shows high levels of manganese and other contaminants. Above, an email from the EPA says elevated levels of manganese there are a concern. But sources knowledgeable about the system’s design are skeptical of the experimental water filtration system that the church has installed — but declined to test — in Dugway. Onysko, the former Utah Division of Drinking Water engineer, surveyed the Dugway water system before his termination. The filter, he says, may be unable to reduce naturally occurring but potentially harmful minerals and metals to safe drinking levels. The valley is sparsely populated, with fewer than 1,000 yearround residents, many of whom are members of the LDS Church. This stark white landscape, encompassing the base and a part of the Goshute Indian Reservation, is nicknamed Skull Valley after the number of animals that have died there after drinking from local ponds. Potable water is scarce. The water in the Dugway chapel’s well contains iron and manganese in amounts considerably above EPA recommendations, ac- I’ve been in the business now for 30 years, and wouldn’t know if this exactly would work,” Paul Check, water filter parts supplier cording to the church’s own tests. High levels of these minerals are not considered as dangerous to humans as, say, lead, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. But they do pose a risk to developmental health. State records show that in 2014, the LDS Church sought approval for a water treatment plant designed to remove minerals in general, and manganese in particular, from the well. Rather than buying an approved filtration unit, the church opted to design a mechanism of its own. After an initial round of testing showed a reduction in manganese, state officials signed off on the design. “The Division believes in giving water systems as much flexibility A-7 The Park Record as possible to address their own issues as long as public health will not be compromised,” said Division Director Marie Owens in a written statement. “As with any treatment process, we require sample results to ensure that the installation is effective before issuing a final operating permit.” But Paul Check, the production manager at Wisconsin-based Clack Corporation, which supplied the parts for the church’s custom filter, is skeptical of the church’s design. Normally, he says, the managers of small water systems simply buy off-the-shelf components. But the particular components the church selected, Check recalls, have never been tested to ensure they work together. “I’ve been in the business now for 30 years, and wouldn’t know if this exactly would work,” he says. “It would take someone with a lot of experience to make it work, if it’s going to work at all.” The church’s components, Check says, have been used to remove manganese and iron from drinking water for nearly 100 years. But they only work when air is present to help oxidize and absorb dissolved metals. If the filter isn’t properly aerated, he says, it won’t work. The trouble with aerating a water system, Check says, is that if it’s not done carefully, bacteria can enter the system. Once there, they may collect and grow inside the filter. Over time, if the filter becomes coated with bacteria, it will stop removing manganese and may actually release additional metals into the drinking water. What the church should have done, Check says, is run an extended pilot study to ensure the long-term success of its design. Instead, after an initial round of tests in 2014, the church declined to provide the Division of Drinking Water with additional samples. Onysko discovered the lack of testing data three years later, while he was working for the Utah Division of Drinking Water. During a routine survey of the water system, he noticed that several related measures — including the amount of total dissolved solids in the water — had significantly worsened since the most recent tests he had on record. 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