Residents of Olney Springs are still boiling their water before drinking it. State Department Health Officials were advised yesterday that a routine sample tested positive for E.coli, said Rick Ritter, executive director and public health administrator of the Otero/Crowley County Health Department.
“They do monthly monitoring. When the sample was found, they shut down the water system immediately,” Ritter said. “Our Environmental Services Director Kristi Bowman contacted the restaurant out there immediately and made sure that they were not using the water.”
The owner of the restaurant KiKi’s Place could not reached for comment, but told other news agencies that she was serving cold sandwiches and not much else because of the boil order.
The boiled water order had to be activated because one house produced a bad water sample, said Olney Springs Mayor Betty Marshall. The bad sample was found at 10 a.m. on Monday and a reverse 911 call was issued to residents at 1:40 p.m. telling them to boil their water for three minutes before drinking it.
“This is not unusual,” said Ritter. “It happened last year in Olney Springs. It is important to take water testing seriously. If they hadn’t taken it seriously there would have been more E.coli and people would have gotten sick.”
So far no one has gotten sick and the tanks have tested clear, said Marshall.
The water system will be “super chlorinated,” Ritter said, and tested before the boil order is lifted.
Olney Springs expects to lift the boil water order by July 29, if not sooner, Ritter said on Tuesday, but earlier Wednesday morning Marshall said that the order could be lifted today if samples came back clear from the laboratory in Pueblo.
“They told us that this could have happened because of something as little as a hair in the sample,” Marshall said. “We’ll have to do five samples a week for one month, which will be at some expense for the town, but it will be worth it if no one gets sick.”
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Residents of Olney Springs are still boiling their water before drinking it. State Department Health Officials were advised yesterday that a routine sample tested positive for E.coli, said Rick Ritter, executive director and public health administrator of the Otero/Crowley County Health Department.
“They do monthly monitoring. When the sample was found, they shut down the water system immediately,” Ritter said. “Our Environmental Services Director Kristi Bowman contacted the restaurant out there immediately and made sure that they were not using the water.”
The owner of the restaurant KiKi’s Place could not reached for comment, but told other news agencies that she was serving cold sandwiches and not much else because of the boil order.
The boiled water order had to be activated because one house produced a bad water sample, said Olney Springs Mayor Betty Marshall. The bad sample was found at 10 a.m. on Monday and a reverse 911 call was issued to residents at 1:40 p.m. telling them to boil their water for three minutes before drinking it.
“This is not unusual,” said Ritter. “It happened last year in Olney Springs. It is important to take water testing seriously. If they hadn’t taken it seriously there would have been more E.coli and people would have gotten sick.”
So far no one has gotten sick and the tanks have tested clear, said Marshall.
The water system will be “super chlorinated,” Ritter said, and tested before the boil order is lifted.
Olney Springs expects to lift the boil water order by July 29, if not sooner, Ritter said on Tuesday, but earlier Wednesday morning Marshall said that the order could be lifted today if samples came back clear from the laboratory in Pueblo.
“They told us that this could have happened because of something as little as a hair in the sample,” Marshall said. “We’ll have to do five samples a week for one month, which will be at some expense for the town, but it will be worth it if no one gets sick.”
