TUMALO, OR -- Tumalo residents are once again cleared to drink their tap water.
A potentially harmful strain of E.coli was found in the drinking water during a routine monthly test, last week. Laidlaw Water District Manager Dale Peer tells KBND News, "We have four dedicated sampling sites throughout our system at the far extremes of our system in each direction, and we test each one each month on a rotation basis. One tested positive the first time on the routine, and then when we came back for our retest, we found two stations positive." Crews flushed and chlorinated the system, and after follow-up testing came back negative for the bacteria on Saturday, officials lifted the boil water order for the 130 impacted customers.
Peer says they haven't yet tracked down the cause of the E.coli, "Our system is totally enclosed. We go from our well to our sealed reservoir and out the system. And, the first time it sees daylight is when it hits the tap, so it's a really difficult situation to say 'this is what caused it.'" He adds, "We pump our water from a very deep well, which was negative for E.coli, so we know it wasn't coming from our source."
Once the boil order was lifted Saturday afternoon, residents were encouraged to flush their own pipes of excess chlorine. There have been no reports of any health issues.
