Cheyenne BOPU: Watching Mullen Fire, Drinking Water Remains Safe

A spokeswoman for the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities says that while the Mullen Fire probably will reach Rob Roy Reservoir today, the city’s drinking water remains safe.

Rob Roy is one of the main sources of water for the city of Cheyenne. You can read more about where Cheyenne’s drinking water comes from here.

”Our adherence to federal water regulations ensures that our water will always be safe to drink” Dena Egenhoff said on Monday. She also said the BOPU water treatment mechanisms are capable of handling any immediate impacts from the fire on water quality.

But Egenhoff also says the BOPU is watching the situation closely, adding there potentially could be some long-term impacts on the reservoir, particularly if the fire does a lot of damage in the watershed in that area, followed by heavy precipitation.

Egenhoff said Monday the concern under that scenario would be ash and fire debris washing into the reservoir.

When Egenhoff was asked whether there is any real danger of water from the reservoir becoming either unsafe or unavailable over the next few days or weeks, Egenhoff said “That is a really hard question…I don’t want to mislead anybody because I really don’t know how this fire is going to behave.”

At the last report, the fire had burned almost 14,000 acres in the Medicine Bow National Forest and was considered only about two percent contained.

You can access the latest available information on the Mullen Fire here.

Egenhoff said that as of noon on Monday it was not clear that the fire had reached the reservoir yet, but added she expected that to happen at some point today if it has not already.

You can hear the entire interview with Egenhoff in the audio attached to this article (below).

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