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SYRACUSE — Since Friday, Syracuse residents have had two choices when it comes to drinking water: bottled or boiled.
After a cross connection of culinary and secondary water near 2000 West and 700 South contaminated the city's tap water with E. coli and coliform bacteria, a boil order was issued by the city.
"It's been a lot more labor-intensive than I thought," Syracuse resident Valerie Parsons said. "When you hear you're under a water boil, you don't think about not being able to use your purified water system, or your water softener, or your water heater or anything. It's a hassle."
Syracuse city manager Brody Brovero said E. coli is no longer present in water samples, but one of the 20 samples taken Sunday tested positive for coliform bacteria.
Until all samples test negative for coliform bacteria, the city will continue to issue a boil order Syracuse, Brovero said. According to the Syracuse Facebook page, the boil order could last until Wednesday.
Until then, Syracuse resident Kaziah Chang said that water bottles are used for everything from brushing teeth to preparing food.
"The first day it happened, of course there wasn't any bottled water at Wal-Mart," Chang said. "So we were going where could to find it."
The search for water bottles led Syracuse residents to the Wal-Mart in neighboring Clinton. That caused a shortage of water bottles as well when Clinton issued its own water boil order Saturday.
No cases of illness brought on by E. coli have been reported so far, said Bob Ballew, Davis County Health Department spokesman.
Overall, residents have been very good, very patient. We understand there is some frustration, and we are frustrated, too. We want to provide services and go back to business. We want to get back to normal. This is a level of frustration we understand.
–Brody Brovero, Syracuse city manager
"Overall, residents have been very good, very patient," Brovero said. "We understand there is some frustration, and we are frustrated, too. We want to provide services and go back to business. We want to get back to normal. This is a level of frustration we understand."
Until the boil order is no longer in effect, city officials recommend residents to not eat anything prepared with tap water or wash dishes with tap water.
Though city officials say it is OK for adults and older children to bathe in the water, the thought of using water contaminated with coliform is not appealing to Parsons.
"It grosses me out, the thought of it," she said. "We didn't do our laundry this weekend. We were hoping that they would have it fixed."
And Parsons does not expect a cheap fix.
"From what I understand, when the water coming back on, I'm going to have replace all the filters in my water purifying system, as well as the salt in my water softener, flush out my water heater and everything," she said. "So I think it's going to run into some money to have to do all that."
Katie Larsen is a Deseret News intern and print journalism senior at Utah State University who graduates in December. Email: klarsen@deseretnews.com
