State of emergency declared for Wayne County town due to water contamination

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect that Teasdale was not affected by water contamination as previously reported.
TORREY, Wayne County — A state of emergency has been declared for a small town in Wayne County dealing with water contamination issues for nearly a week, the Utah Department of Environmental Quality said Tuesday.
According to the declaration, a break in Torrey’s main waterline began around Thursday near the spring that feeds into the town’s water system.
The break in the line caused a stoppage of water to storage tanks to the town’s drinking water system and the system is out of water.
The DEQ also tweeted Tuesday that the small town of Teasdale, which is located roughly 5 miles southwest of Torrey, was also affected by water contamination.
"We’re only about 5 miles apart but our water systems but our water systems are completely separate from completely different springs on completely different mountains," he said.
Torrey officials issued an advisory Saturday because of bacterial contamination of the town’s water supply.
Residents were asked to boil any water needed for drinking purposes until the problem is resolved.
The town added that water from Loa and Fremont was going to be trucked up to the top of the system to speed up the repair process and that all restaurants have been ordered closed by a state health inspector.
Convenience stores were being allowed to sell packaged goods.

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