Late last week, a boil notice was issued for the Five Cities area, as potential contaminants were identified in the system that delivers water from Lopez lake.
The boil notice was lifted after the weekend, and public works announced they will be temporarily switching to free chlorine to act as a stronger and faster-acting disinfectant. Additionally, public works has laid out a timeline and posted answers to frequently asked questions about the incident.
The timeline says that on April 28th, 5 of the 13 sites for the Lopez Project tested positive for coliform, a bacteria that is found naturally in the environment and can indicate potential contamination. One tested positive for e. Coli. Additional testing was immediately conducted, but results took about 18 to 24 hours to be available. After a second round of testing, the boil notice was initiated, and by May 2nd, all thirteen sites showed no presence of coliform or e. Coli.
Public works says they are continuing to investigate and perform testing and maintenance throughout the system, and will post notifications as more information becomes available.