Durango water quality, gas and mining status? (Denver: live in, zip codes)

[snaketotem]

Hello!

We have heard some great things about Durango, but I also heard that there are some well water quality issues and proposals for new mining and new gas drilling, which appear to be environmentally questionable. Can anyone tell me about these issues in Durango and what may be in the future for that area? We are considering it as a possible place for relocation, but clean water and minimal pollution are at the top of my "must have" list. Thanks!

Christina

[Crackerjack]

Durango and La Plata County gets an excellent score on air, water and land at
scorecard.org

Use the zipcode 81301 and you can see it is a healthy place. You can look at others by typing in their zip codes to get an idea how other places stack up to Durango which is in La Plata County. You might look at all the cities in Colorado then compare. You will click on "see how your county stacks up" and it will give the La Plata (Durango) score for air, land, water, etc. and then you can use other zip codes in Colorado to compare. Say Denver, 80201 will do for Denver County. If you don't know the zip codes, go to
zipinfo.com/search/zipcode.htm
and type in the city and state and it will give you the zip code.

The natural gas drilling you have been hearing about is in the HD mountains which the locals are against. They fight tooth and nails in Durango on anything like that. The people in Durango are upset that builders built some 5 story buildings. Many people there are outraged, so the city has put a temporary stop to building highrises until they have several meetings and hear concerns and so forth.

[williamsmj]

Check out the water report for the city of durango water department:
http://www.durangogov.org/resident/services/water_quality_2004.pdf#xml=http://webinterface.city.durango:8080/isysquery/be093ee3-89f5-4f2d-99b0-057887a6c801/1/hilite/ (broken link)

[danieldosier]

I live in durango and have a well. I need an official test but i checked w my ppm(parts per million) meter and ph tester. PH at 9 so Def hard water but the ppm scares me. Cold comes out at 700ppm and hot at 1200. The norm for city water is 150 to 350ppm. This means when I take a shower I am absorbing lots of heavy metals so I better eat up on my cilantro, har... Hope I dont get a kidney stone. I have an RO filter for drinking, which isn't the best anyway bc it strips everything out. The prob is it wastes sooo much water. Only a third is filtered. Water will def get tight in the future.