DIETRICH — Dietrich residents are still advised to boil their water before drinking it, the Department of Environmental Quality said Wednesday afternoon.
One of the water samples came back clean, but the other sample tested positive for coliform, drinking water and engineering manager Mike Brown said.
The department is flushing and retesting the water, a process that takes at least 24 hours.
The DEQ began testing Dietrich city water last Thursday after a former city employee was found dead in his apartment next to a cannister of nitrogen.
The Dietrich mayor said at the time there were concerns that the man had somehow contaminated the water.
The coliform in the water wouldn’t have been caused by that sort of contamination, Brown said.
Tests over the weekend found that the source water was clean.
Instead, the coliform in the sample is likely a result of the depressurization that occurred during testing, Brown said.
He said that it could have come “from any number of sources,” such as bad handling of the sample.