Re: Current Antonito water tank

Russ489's comments reminded me of issues in Antonito with the water in the early 1980's. Frequently, the crew would go out to the tank in the morning and find it nearly empty because someone had come along and turned off the valve on the supply pipe. It was eventually learned that the owners of the Narrow Gauge Motel would sneak over under cloak of darkness and shut the water so as to give the motel more water pressure.

Up until the mid-1990's it was an annual event to have the Chama water system crater at the end of June. The muddy runoff would overrun the filtration plant, the pumps would burn out, then no more water. July 4 weekend was frequently "dry" in a way one usually does not think of. More than once I washed up after coming in off the engine in the irrigation ditch in front of my house. They usually would "fix" the problem by removing the filters and letting raw river water into the system bringing all kinds of nifty bugs and critters into the water. Back then we didn't know what giardia was so us railroaders called it "General Palmer's Revenge". It became a real problem. After my wife had her kidney transplant and was on serious anti-rejection drugs that basically kicked her immune system in the head, she was constantly sick from Chama water. That was one of the several reasons I left in 1998.