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::: COMMUNITY NEWS

RM water fails, then passes, routine purity test

Published Wednesday, October 18, 2006

A notice in the October Community Services District bill informed residents a drinking water standard was violated in July.

Two drinking water samples tested positive for coliform bacteria, although testing for E.coli bacteria was negative, according to the notice. Re-testing found clean samples, officials said.

"This is a technical violation," said General Manager Ed Crouse when asked about the incident. "If it was a true public health safety violation, residents would have gotten immediate notice through a variety of measures."

He said notification measures can include radio and television announcements, depending on the severity of the health risk.

Crouse characterized the bacteria found in the samples as "dirt," not the fecal bacteria of E.coli. He said the CSD performs monthly sampling of water in the pipelines at six to eight widely separated locations in the district, ranging from residential to commercial.

"We take the samples from hose bibs," he said. "There are a lot of opportunities for dirt to come into contact with the water."

Coliform bacteria are indicator organisms found commonly in soil and untreated open water. While health officials say coliform are generally harmless, they may be accompanied by disease-causing organisms, like E.coli.

The coliform findings in July were a first for the district and prompted an investigation and changes in sample collection, transport and processing procedures, said Joe Majarucon, director of field operations for the district.

Majarucon included a report of the incident in his monthly operations summary for September, which was available to the public as part of the September board packet, although it was not discussed at the board meeting.

Majarucon wrote in the report, "Total Coliform is used as an indicator test. The presence of coliform shows us that something could be wrong, but is not conclusive in itself; hence the test for E-coli."

When the process was repeated, "the re-tests came back clean," Majarucon wrote. These results, plus the "safe zone" results for other testing the water routinely undergoes led staff to conclude "that the initial tests were false positives," according to Majarucon's report.

His report also outlines the public notification process the state Department of Health Services required. "As a result of the earlier coliform 'hits,' the district was in violation for Total Coliform and is required to notify the public.  (Department of Health Services) follows strict guidelines on the text of the notification.

In our case, an advertisement in the public newspaper was done and is being followed up on with a bill
stuffer, which will be in the next water bill," he wrote. A notice appeared in the Sacramento Bee in September, according to Crouse.

"We follow normal state protocol for notice when we have a test that is outside the limits of the testing parameters," said Crouse. In this case, the Department of Health Services was notified within 24 hours and retesting was done.

"Based on the retest, the state told us there's no immediate need to provide any notification," he said.