A ritzy Utah resort has been accused of pumping unsafe drinking water into its rooms and telling its employees to wash their hands and dishes in pool water.
Sorrel River Ranch Resort and Spa, located in southeastern Utah along the Colorado River, was issued an emergency order last week to stop operating its surface water treatment plant and provide an alternative source of potable water for guests.
The Utah Division of Drinking Water rated the $800-per-night resort’s water system ‘Not Approved,’ which is the state agency’s lowest compliance designation for public water systems.
The ranch’s surface water treatment plant draws water from the Colorado River and cleans it using chemical feed pumps. Officials ordered the treatment plant to close after resort employees reported being told to wash dishes in swimming pool water.
The employees also reported that they had been directed to provide guests with bottled water and that tanks had been filled with water that had been hauled in from an unknown source, reported Axios, which first scooped the scandal.
The order to stop operating the treatment plant states that it typically serves 260 people, 180 of whom are guests at the resort.
State officials claim that the plant had been functioning without a certified operator. An employee ‘had been recently transferred from the resort’s housekeeping staff to act as the system’s treatment operator,’ the report stated.
The resort’s numerous alleged violations were discovered after the Utah Division of Drinking Water sent an inspector in light of the issues reported by employees.
Sorrel River Ranch, a ritzy $800-per-night resort in Utah, has been accused of pumping unsafe drinking water into guests’ rooms and directing employees to wash dishes in pool water
The resort sits along the banks of the Colorado River and operates a water treatment plant that pulls water from the river and cleans it
The Utah Division of Drinking Water said the resort’s treatment plant did not have a certified operator and had equipment that appeared to have been malfunctioning for a while
The inspector determined that the water treatment plant’s chemical feed pumps had likely failed before July 28 and found that the workers at the plant were not certified to operate it.
It was also determined that a chemical called alum, which is used in the treatment process, had converted into a thick gel instead of remaining liquid.
The alum is meant to mix with the water and force impurities to coagulate into filterable particles, which is the ‘plant’s primary chemical barrier against waterborne disease,’ according to regulators.
The fact that the chemical had turned into a gel meant that it had likely ‘failed completely for a prolonged period of time,’ and may have led guests ‘to blindly drink actively unsafe, un-disinfected surface water,’ regulators added.
Sorrel River Ranch was accused of myriad violations, including failure to report an emergency, operation without a certified treatment plant operator, malfunctioning instrumentation and interruptions in the treatment process that could allow drinking water contamination, among others.
The resort was ordered to post a Tier 1 ‘Do Not Use’ public notice, provide guests with bottled water, obtain state approval before hauling water from another source and hire a certified operator for the treatment plant.
It was also ordered to restore proper monitoring and recordkeeping, install a working chlorine analyzer and complete compliance sampling before the treatment plant could be authorized to begin operating again.
The state’s public notice instructed guests to avoid using the resort’s water for any purposes, including drinking, preparing food, brushing teeth or bathing.
Guests at the resort were told not to use the water for any purpose, from drinking to bathing. A sweeping view from the resort’s property is pictured
Regulators said that guests may have been led ‘to blindly drink actively unsafe, un-disinfected surface water.’ A section of the Colorado River in Utah is pictured
Jason Roma, the general manager of the resort, shared a statement with KUTV that said: ‘Sorrel River Ranch is aware of the concerns regarding its water system. The safety of our guests and employees remains our highest priority.
‘We are cooperating fully with the Utah Department of Environmental Quality and other applicable health authorities and are taking all required corrective actions.
‘As this is an active regulatory matter, we are unable to comment further at this time. We remain committed to resolving the matter promptly and in full accordance with all regulatory requirements.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to Sorrel River Ranch Resort and Spa for additional comment.
