News

UPDATE: Boil Water Advisory

  • Published
  • Robin Bioenvironmental Engineering

While the boiling advisory is a precautionary measure, base personnel may want to bring bottled water to work.

Following federal guidelines, we are notifying you of a boil water notice.

Water sampling was performed throughout our distribution system. A sample recently detected a fecal indicator from a raw water (pre-treated) source.

Resampling will be conducted on Aug. 20. The positive sample was taken before any disinfection and is not necessarily representative of our drinking water.

This boil water notice is being issued as a preventive measure to ensure no contaminants reach your drinking water.

Our water system recently detected a fecal indicator, E. coli, in Well #8. As our customers, you have a right to know what happened and what we are doing to correct this situation. On Aug 14, we collected a sample from Well #8. The sample tested positive for E. coli.

 

What should I do? What does this mean?

•Do not drink the water without boiling it first. Bring all water to a boil, let it boil for one minute, and let it cool before using, or use bottled water. Boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing dishes, and food preparation until further notice. Boiling kills bacteria and other organisms in the water.

•*Fecal indicators are microbes whose presence indicates that the water may be contaminated with human or animal wastes. Microbes in these wastes can cause short-term health effects, such as diarrhea, cramps, nausea, headaches, or other symptoms. They may pose a special health risk for infants, young children, some of the elderly, and people with severely compromised immune systems.*

•The symptoms above are not caused only by organisms in drinking water. If you experience any of these symptoms and they persist, you may want to seek medical advice. People at increased risk should seek advice from their health care providers about drinking this water.

What is being done?

We are resampling Aug 20, Monday to confirm our water source is safe to drink. Samples will be sent to an approved lab where it will be analyzed. We will inform you when tests show no E. coli and you no longer need to boil your water.

For more information, please contact Bioenvironmental Engineering at DSN 497-7555 or Comm 478-327-7555. General guidelines on ways to lessen the risk of infection by microbes are available from the EPA Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791.