After handwashing at her kitchen sink, Brenda Ramos loads water-stained dishes into a dishwasher that’s solely used as a drying rack. Her husband, Oscar Ramos, saunters into the kitchen with a blue casing, unsealing the cap and pouring out dark-brown water before removing a filter caked with sediment.
“It’s like pure gasoline,” Brenda said of the water.
The Ramos’ live in Mountain Shadows, a subdivision outside of New Castle immediately neighboring Apple Tree Mobile Home Park, which shares the same water source. The Ramos family invested in the personal Aquasure filtration system for their home, but it’s done little to fix the issue, they say. Oscar replaces the filter every few months.
They still don’t drink the water from the tap and most often do their laundry, especially whites that inevitably stain, outside of the park. They use store-bought water for drinking, to make ice and sometimes just to brush their teeth. The tap water is used for bathing, and has permanently stained the tub under the spout and jets. Brenda claimed that her daughter’s eczema is exacerbated by the water, which, after spending some time away, cleared right up.
For years, the water quality in Apple Tree has been of concern. In 2023, The Sopris Sun reported on the issue, which was brought to a head following the transfer of ownership from the previous owners, the Talbott family, to Investment Property Group (IPG) in 2020. As of late, concerns have been aired over Facebook and among neighbors.
Kim Cassady has lived in Apple Tree for 28 years, and said the water quality has gotten worse since IPG took over.
“I love the ladies in the office, and Henry, who has been a longtime manager here. They’re all really good people,” Cassady said. “But it doesn’t feel like the umbrella of IPG really cares about the community.”
Apple Tree management regularly carries out community-wide flushes of the water system, and residents are generally advised to flush their home lines afterwards. Many residents also flush their hot water heaters regularly. Cassady said she flushes their hot water heater at least every few months, and that the community-wide flushes have become more frequent.
Jenelle Vega has been an Apple Tree resident for 20 years. “My lot rent when I first moved in was $257 a month,” Vega explained. She said that her rent is expected to go up $48 in April, to around $720. She doesn’t pay for sewer, water or irrigation “because [she] is grandfathered in.” But IPG’s website advertises base-site rent at $1,045 for prospective renters, plus additional costs, including water and sewer.
Since she’s lived there, Vega said her family has gone through four washing machines, six toilets (between two bathrooms), two bathtubs and three dishwashers. “I currently do not have a dishwasher and refuse to buy a new one,” she said. “We don’t drink the water. I do not cook with the water.”
The residents The Sun spoke with can only speculate why the water seems to have gotten worse.
State intervention
Nicole Rowan, the director of the Water Quality Control Division at Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), said that since Colorado’s Mobile Home Park Water Quality Act (MHWQA) was implemented, the department has routinely monitored drinking water in communities like this throughout the state, including Apple Tree. Because it’s a public water system, regular testing is also required under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).
The last test, on Feb. 11, checked for bacteria which came back negative. Rowan said that the owner has a certified operator running the system, who carries out testing in accordance with the SDWA.
“The park is meeting all health-based standards of the SDWA,” Rowan said. However, additional sampling is required under the MHWQA.
“What we’ve really been working with them on is what the MHWQA refers to as ‘welfare issues,’” Rowan explained. “The water is quite hard and has really high levels of total-dissolved solids … and also has high iron levels.”
Colorado House Bill 26-1145 is currently being considered, which would clarify that remediation addressing welfare water quality issues is a requirement, on top of testing, under the MHWQA.
The state department has worked with the operator to flush the system “on a routine basis,” Rowan stated. “That has really helped some, we think, but the concerns are still there.”
“Residents should flush service lines one to three days after Apple Tree flushes main water lines,” said another CDPHE spokesperson. “Residents should flush washing machine supply lines one to two times per year and water heaters every one to two months.”
The Water Quality Control Division created a screening tool for welfare water quality concerns. “Apple Tree has … the highest score on the screening tool out of the [388] parks we’ve tested so far,” Rowan said. “We think there [are] significant impacts, negative impacts, to the residents based on that screening tool.”
IPG declined to comment for this story.
