originally posted on August 19, 2016

 

It’s safe to drink the water in Galena.  Friday afternoon (8/19), the Kansas Department of Health and Environment lifted a boil water advisory that had been in effect since Tuesday (8/16). The advisory was issued after the city’s water pressure dropped Monday night (8/15).  Samples of Galena’s water were tested and there was no indication of contamination.

by Clare Clancy, originally posted on August 19, 2016

 

Stony Plain residents were left with just dribbles of water for about an hour Saturday evening after a second water main break depressurized the town’s water supply.

The first water main break Friday led Alberta Health Services to issue a precautionary boil-water advisory, which remains in place.

The town’s water crews were able to restore water pressure to most of the town about an hour after the break by turning off valve.

Roughly 10 houses in the vicinity of the broken pipe at 44 Ave. and Aberdeen Way were not expected to have water restored until late Saturday night after the pipe was replaced.

Residents and businesses were being asked to bring water to a rolling boil for at least one minute before drinking it or using it to brush teeth, clean raw foods, make ice or prepare infant formula.

The advisory doesn’t apply to water for bathing or washing clothes.

The advisory is expected to end at noon Monday.

originally posted on August 19, 2016

 

CONTINENTAL — A boil advisory, the result of a water valve leak, has been issued for Continental residents who live on the south side of the railroad tracks, according to the village Water Department and village Administrator Kathy Prowant.
The precautionary measure advises that water should be boiled before drinking or being used for ice cubes, cooking and oral hygiene. The water is safe for bathing.
It is expected the advisory will be effective until Tuesday, when the advisory may be lifted following repairs and testing.
For further information, contact Continental Water Department at 419-596-3822.

originally posted on August 19, 2016

 

Beckley Water Company has issued a boil water advisory for Pinewood Drive from Painter Drive to Christopher Drive in Maxwell Hill. This includes Elmridge Court and Pineridge Drive due to a broken main line.

Raleigh County PSD-Airport has issued a boil water advisory from 167 Table Rock Road up to and including 500 Table Rock Road due to a main line break.

Customers are advised to bring all water to a full rolling boil, let it boil for one minute and let cool before using, or use bottled water. Boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing dishes, bathing, and food preparation until further notice. Boiling kills bacteria and other organisms in the water.

originally posted on August 19, 2016

 

LAGRANGE, Ky. — UPDATE: The LaGrange Utilities Water Company announced Friday that a boil water advisory has been lifted.

ORIGINAL STORY:

The LaGrange Utilities Water Company has announced that there will be a boil water advisory in effect on Thursday.

Starting at 9:30 a.m. for approximately four hours, the company will have the water off to replace a fire hydrant on the corner of Hoffman Drive and Lakeview Avenue. in LaGrange Acres.

More 500 customers will have their water off during this time.

This area goes from Bluegrass Avenue to Chilewich Apartments on Jericho Road.

The boil water advisory will be for at least 24 hours or until released by the State of Kentucky Division of Water.

by Luke Ramseth, originally posted on August 18, 2016

 

A hazardous chemical continues to show up in groundwater tests at a well located on the U.S. Department of Energy’s desert site, but officials say it doesn’t mean the aquifer is contaminated.

Recent testing of well No. 2051 by the U.S. Geological Survey, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho detected tetrachloroethylene at “well above safe drinking water levels,” according to a USGS report. The clear liquid is commonly used for dry cleaning and as a metal degreaser.

But officials said Thursday they think the chemical, commonly known as PCE, is most likely coming from inside the 1,100-foot-deep well itself. They said it does not pose a threat to the surrounding East Snake Plain Aquifer or nearby drinking water sources.

“We’re convinced it’s a well problem rather than an aquifer problem,” said Marc Jewett, director of environmental restoration for Fluor.

Officials grew concerned when traces of PCE first showed up in routine tests late last year. Dozens of similar monitoring wells are positioned around the DOE site, ensuring nuclear cleanup and research activities aren’t polluting the region’s most abundant water source. Officials were stumped on how this unusual chemical may have reached the aquifer, and why it had only been detected in a single well.

“It certainly gave us a mystery to kind of work through,” said Roy Bartholomay, a USGS hydrologist who leads the agency’s Idaho National Laboratory office.

Another round of testing by the contractor in March found low levels of PCE. In June, Fluor and the two government agencies met at the well site to take samples, before testing them at separate laboratories. Last month, they also sent a camera to the bottom of the well to investigate.

Results from all three tests have once again showed PCE — this time at levels far above standards safe for drinking. One test showed 824 micrograms of PCE per liter of water in the well. The federal safe water drinking standard is 5 micrograms.

But officials said the off-the-charts PCE sample most likely was accidentally taken from the water that resides inside the sealed-off well hole, not from the surrounding aquifer. Other samples may have collected aquifer water, then become contaminated with PCE as they were transported back to the surface.

Monitoring wells are sealed with plastic piping; steel water bottles are lowered to withdraw the samples from the aquifer at various depths. It appears water sealed inside the pipe — added when the well was built in 2005 — has been contaminated with PCE, which in turn polluted the water samples taken from the aquifer, Bartholomay said.

“We put it in clean,” Jewett said of the water inside the well, which keeps the pipe from collapsing due to the pressure of the aquifer. “But somewhere along the way it got contaminated.”

Officials still don’t know how the well water was contaminated, however. Maybe the cable that runs inside the pipe had PCE on it, or pipe seals inside the well are breaking down, releasing the chemical, officials speculated. More investigation is planned.

Additional tests are set to be conducted on wells around the site, to ensure they don’t have the same PCE issue, Jewett said. Fluor and DOE officials also are looking at ways to clean the chemical out of the well.

Tests for PCE at the nearby Big Lost River Rest Area drinking water well came back negative, Bartholomay said. There are no other drinking water wells nearby, he said.

So the PCE mystery continues: “We really don’t know how it got there,” Jewett said.

 

 

by Dan Elliott, originally posted on August 18, 2016

 

DENVER (AP) — Colorado health officials said it’s highly likely that trace amounts of toxic chemicals found in three drinking water systems came from firefighting foam used at a nearby Air Force base.

The state Department of Public Health and Environment said Wednesday it hasn’t ruled out additional sources, but officials believe at least some of the chemicals came from Peterson Air Force Base, where firefighters used the foam in training exercises.

The foam contained perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, which have been linked to prostate, kidney and testicular cancer, along with other illnesses.

The comments by state officials were the most definitive statement to date linking the contamination to Peterson. It came hours after the military released a report identifying six sites at the base where the foam may have escaped into the environment after firefighting drills or fire equipment tests.

They include hangars, fire stations, a drainage pond and a field where the base once sent storm runoff. The field is now a golf course and is irrigated from the drainage pond.

The military is checking bases nationwide for possible releases of the foam into the environment.

Colorado and Air Force officials will meet next week to discuss their next steps, said Roland Clubb of the state health department. The next phase will include drilling monitoring wells and taking soil samples, which the Air Force announced last month.

Clubb said state officials also want assurances from the Air Force about seven other sites at Peterson where the foam was used, but where the military said no follow-up investigation is needed. The Air Force said any foam released at those sites went through a treatment system.

PFCs also were widely used in non-stick coatings on cookware and in other applications. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered water systems nationwide to test for the compounds between 2013 and 2015.

In Colorado, PFCs were found in well water in three utility systems serving about 69,000 people in the city of Fountain and an unincorporated community called Security-Widefield. The levels exceeded the EPA’s suggested limits.

Colorado health officials have said the communities have higher rates of kidney cancer than surrounding populations, but the evidence was not sufficient to definitively blame PFCs. They noted that the residents also have higher rates of obesity and smoking, which are linked to cancer.

PFCs didn’t show up in other public Colorado water systems, but health officials in El Paso County, which includes the affected towns, said they found PFCs above the EPA recommendation in 26 private drinking-water wells. They were awaiting results on 12 others.

Aaron Doussett, manager of the county’s water quality program, said he doesn’t have enough information yet to say whether the PFCs came from the air base.

The Air Force previously agreed to spend $4.3 million to install water filters in the area remove PFCs. Contractors were still working out the details, Peterson spokesman Steve Brady said.

The Security Water District has shifted almost entirely to surface water — from rivers and lakes — since the PFCs were found, Manager Roy Heald said Wednesday. Previously, about half the district’s water came from wells and half from surface water.

Heald expects the district to soon use surface water entirely, after modifications to the system.

The Fountain Water Department has not used wells since October and got through this summer’s peak demand period entirely on surface water, Utilities Director Curtis Mitchell said.

The director of the Widefield water system wasn’t immediately available to comment, his staff said.

originally posted on August 18, 2016

 

There’s still a boil-water advisory in effect in Watson Lake, but the chlorine levels are dropping, according to Mayor Justin Brown.

Brown said Wednesday Public Works staff are still looking at the issue and trying to figure out where the problem originated.

Pat Living is the director of social marketing and communications with the Department of Health and Social Services.

From an environmental health perspective, she said today, the department supports the continuation of the boil-water advisory until bacteriological testing can confirm the water quality has not been impacted.

“The chlorine levels are not high enough to cause any health concerns,” said Living. “The town continues to work to determine what the problem is and a possible solution.”

Brown expects the advisory will be lifted in the next couple of days.

Until then, residents are advised to boil water for 20 minutes to avoid a “funky” taste.

by Trace Bruce, originally posted on August 18, 2016

 

Public Water District 8 in Cedar Hill has issued a voluntary boil water advisory for its customers.

The district discovered a water main break about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night (Aug. 17) that has since been repaired.

“The advisory is precautionary, so that people with an impaired immune system or who have small children can boil their water if they want to,” manager Kathy Voyles said.

When a water district experiences a water main break, it must submit water samples to be tested by the Jefferson County Health Department. The district has provided two test samples, one at 11:30 p.m. last night and one at 9 a.m. this morning. If neither shows evidence of contamination, the district will lift the advisory.

The results of the tests are expected sometime Friday afternoon.

For those who choose to boil their water, it should be boiled vigorously for three minutes. Boiled water should be used for drinking, brushing teeth, diluting fruit juices and all other food preparations.

Do not use ice from an automatic icemaker. Remake ice cubes with water that has been boiled or buy ice.

Disinfect dishes and other surfaces that will be in contact with food by immersing them in tap water that contains on teaspoon of unscented household bleach per gallon of water.

Water used for washing hands or bathing generally does not need to be boiled.

originally posted on August 18, 2016

 

PORT BARRE, La. (KLFY) – A portion of Port Barre is under a water boil advisory due to the water system being shut off in a localized area while part of the water line on Highway 190 in front of the Love’s Travel Center was being replaced.

Officials say the advisory only affects the following areas: North and South of Highway 190 within the corporate limits, Frisco and Bruner Streets and the mobile home park located behing the Thrifty Way Pharmacy off of Virginia Elizabeth Avenue.

The boil advisory will remain in effect until water samples are cleared by DHH.

Affected residents should bring their water to a rolling boil and leave it boil for one full minute before consumption.