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CLINTON — Clinton City officials said tests of the city’s water supply were looking good, but told residents to continue taking precautions.
Wednesday, the city issued a precautionary advisory telling residents to boil their drinking water and avoid using it to wash their hands after the water tested positive for E. Coli. Thursday, officials sent out an update, saying the tests were good, but that the County Health Department still recommended residents follow precautions.
Clinton officials said they hoped the water system would be back to normal by early Friday. Currently, there is not enough residual chlorine at the end of the system. Following a flush, City Manager Dennis Cluff said, chlorine levels should be at one part per million.
- Use boiled or bottled water. If planning to boil your water, bring it to a rapid boil for 5 minutes.
- Use boiled or bottled water to brush teeth, wash hands before food preparation and for any food preparation.
- Bathing in unboiled water is OK as long as you don't have open sores and the water doesn't enter the mouth.
“Yesterday early afternoon we added more chlorine to the water reservoirs and that is working its way through the water system. We continue testing the chlorine residual and will give notice of lifting our warning advisory as soon as sufficient chlorine has circulated through our water system,” they wrote.
No other cities were affected by the possible contamination and no infections had been reported.
The water may have been contaminated by a cross-connection where a resident connected a line of irrigation water to the drinking water system at their home after their culinary water line was shut off due to lack of payment, according to Cluff. The irrigation water was disconnected before contamination efforts began.
"(Irrigation water) must have entered into the system and just went through the system slowly, and eventually there was some contamination at the west end, which is the low end, where the three tests yesterday identified there was some E. coli," Cluff said.
The residents could face a possible citation, he said.
Updates about the water advisory will be posted on the city's website.
Contributing: Paul Nelson and McKenzie Romero
