|
For Immediate Release Thursday, August 25, 2004
Odor from prairie pothole being tested
Boulder County monitoring rotten egg smell
Contact: Jeff Zayach
Boulder County Public Health
Environmental Health Division Manager
303-441-1182
Boulder County Public Health (BCPH) officials have been notified of a
“rotten egg” smell surrounding Little Gaynor Lake that has become more
prevalent in the past week.
Experts suspect that the odor is due to hydrogen sulfide emissions
produced by naturally decaying organic matter at the bottom of Little Gaynor
Lake, which is located on the south side of Oxford Road between U.S. 287 and
95th Street.
Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a colorless gas with a rotten egg odor that is
detectable at low concentrations.
Boulder County Parks and Open Space along with Public Health officials
will be taking air and water samples over the next several days to determine
if any risk exists for nearby residents or visitors to the area.
A consultant will be hired to do air and water monitoring at the lake to
ensure that the levels of H2S do not present a health risk. A consultant is
being hired because state and federal environmental agencies do not possess
the necessary equipment that can provide immediate test results and show
what concentrations of H2S are present.
Boulder County Public Health has established a hotline that will be
updated as more information is available. The hotline number is
303-441-1460. There will also be information about this situation posted on
the county’s Web site (www.bouldercounty.org).
Little Gaynor Lake and Sombrero Marsh (63rd and Arapahoe) are two
naturally occurring prairie potholes – low points in the landscape where
water collects from irrigation runoff and groundwater – where water becomes
stagnant. As organic material, which often includes algae, collects and
decomposes at the bottom of these bodies of water, it produces hydrogen
sulfide gas.
One potential remedy for this condition is to put barley hay into the
water, which retards algae growth. Boulder County Parks and Open Space did
this in the spring of 2005 on the half of the lake that it owns, but the
procedure merely retarded the process, it did not prevent it. For more
information:
|
