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E. coli detected in the water of mountain town
| Thursday, May 3 2007 10:20 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, May 3 2007 10:23 PM
Lake of the Woods residents are being told not to drink tap water without boiling it first after E. coli bacteria was detected Thursday in the mountain community's water supply.
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Gary Keifer, a California Department of Health Services-certified operator for the Lake of the Woods Mutual Water Company, did not know which of the hundreds of strains of E. coli was found in the community, which borders Kern and Ventura counties. The bacterium can cause diarrhea and, in the worst cases, kidney failure and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Letters warning residents were issued by the water company and given to the 400 households involved, said Diane Gustafson, office manager for the water company. Only Lake of the Woods is affected; samples taken in other nearby towns did not show E. coli contamination, she said.
"Never in 28 years has this happened," Gustafson said.
The letter says that the water company is flushing the distribution system, collecting more samples and will provide disinfection of the wells and distribution system if necessary.
The water company is trying to find the source of the contamination, which could be from a broken pipe or septic tank, she said.
Keifer thinks the contaminated sample is a fluke, since it was the only sample out of many that had the bacteria. The water company takes samples of its water every two weeks, he said.
"I'm pretty confident we're going to be telling everybody that the water is OK," Keifer said.
Residents should boil tap water for one minute and let it cool before using, the letter says. Only use boiled and bottled water for drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing dishes and preparing food.
Many residents were taking extra precautions after receiving the notice.
Mike's Pizza, one of the only restaurants in Lake of the Woods, had stopped selling fountain drinks and closed its bathroom.
"You don't want people washing their hands with the water and then eating the food," said Adam Dehoyos, the restaurant's manager.
They are also boiling all water before using it to cook food and using bottled water to wash the dishes, he said.
Resident Wade Biery doesn't drink the tap water, but he is concerned that his wife, who is eight months pregnant, may have accidentally ingested some of the contaminated water.
"E. coli is some pretty nasty stuff," said the 46-year-old. "There's part of me that's ready to go down there and lop somebody's head off."
Linda Labrecque, also a Lake of the Woods resident, received the notice Thursday morning. She is concerned for her elderly mother. Labrecque regularly washes her mother's dishes in tap water.
"I brushed my teeth in tap water today," said Labrecque, 62. "I don't think it's a big thing for alarm as long as people are careful."
For more information, the letter directs residents to contact Gustafson at 245-1448 or the Department of Health Services' Drinking Water Program in Tehachapi at 335-7315.