Possible cause for brain-eating ameoba contamination


STERLINGTON, La (KNOE 8 News) - Community concern runs high as water treatment continues tonight for a brain eating amoeba found in a local water system.

 Severn Trent is the consulting firm in charge of the water in the affected areas. Project Manager Jason Moss says they are doing what they can to treat the water and investigate the cause.

 "One of the concerns that we have that could be a potential source of the amoeba is what is called a cross connection where a customer tied his home water to supply to the irrigation water supply," Moss explained....

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Sprinkler system backflow suspected in E-coli contamination

KRISTV.com | Continuous News Coverage | Corpus Christi
CORPUS CHRISTI -
Corpus Christi utility crews continue working to pinpoint the source of the recent E-coli contamination, and much of their investigation is aimed at finding an absent or failing backflow prevention device on a sprinkler system in the Flour Bluff area.
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Source of Clinton City’s water contamination traced to cross-connection at single home

CLINTON, Utah — Clinton City’s public works department said they’ve discovered the cause of last week’s city-wide culinaary water contamination was a single home where someone created a cross connection between the culinary and secondary water systems.
Residents in Clinton were on a boil water advisory for nearly a week after the city detected coliform in the water.
Officials with the public works department said they were able to locate the problem fairly quickly, and they lifted the boil order last Thursday.
“Pretty early on in the process, the contamination was ended, but the testing process goes on for quite a while afterwards to verify that the water is clean,” said Michael Chad, who is the Clinton City Public Works director.
Chad said it is very important that the two water systems stay separate in order to prevent contamination from happening. Culinary water is treated for drinking while secondary water is used for things like irrigation.
The city is now considering system changes to prevent a contamination from happening again. Anyone who believes their system may be cross-connected should call Clinton City Public Works.

Clinton Police investigate Clinton water contamination

Cases of bottled water are stacked around the Clinton City Fire Department on Monday, June 8, 2015. Clinton discovered E. coli and coliform in the city water supply over the previous weekend and encouraged all citizens to begin boiling water. The city also offered free bottled water to any residents.
Cases of bottled water are stacked around the Clinton City Fire Department on Monday, June 8, 2015. Clinton discovered E. coli and coliform in the city water supply over the previous weekend and encouraged all citizens to begin boiling water. The city also offered free bottled water to any residents.
CLINTON — The drinking water in Clinton may be safe. But the individual or individuals who contaminated it with E. coli and coliform may not be if there was criminal intent involved.
The city has turned the incident, appeared to have been caused as a result of a culinary and secondary cross connection on a 20-year-old home in the city, over to the police department for further investigation, according to Clinton City Manager Dennis Cluff.
“I believe in justice, absolutely, and we are going to pursue it,” Cluff said.

E-coli found in Syracuse water; boil notice in place

SYRACUSE -- A positive test for water contamination of E-coli and Chloroform was discovered Friday in Syracuse.
According to a public announcement from the city manager Brody Bovero, the sample was taken in the area of 700 South and 2500 West.
“The City’s Public Works Department worked diligently throughout the afternoon and evening to investigate, discover, and isolate the source of contamination,” Bovero said.
Due to the possibility of residual contamination throughout the system, the City is issued a water advisory or “Boil Notice” for the entire city until further notice.
In conjunction with the Davis County Health Department, the city is provided instructions that outline the steps residents will need to take through the weekend to ensure proper safety.
Here are some precautionary measures that should be taken:
• Use boiled or bottled water.
• If planning to boil your water, bring it to a rapid boil for 1 minute.
• Throw out ice cubes from refrigerators
• Boiled water or bottled water should be used for:
     • Brushing teeth, washing hands before food preparation, and for food preparation.
     • Showering or bathing is permissible in un-boiled water if there are no open sores on the body and it doesn’t enter the mouth.
     • After the water from the water provider is declared safe:
     • Drain and flush all icemakers, water heaters, purifiers, water softeners, and reverse osmosis systems. Follow manufacturers’ recommendations when cleaning or replacing filters or screening devices.
     • Let chlorinated cold water run through every faucet in your home or business for 20 minutes followed by two minutes of straight hot water.
Replace filters.
     • Throw out ice cubes or other water stored in refrigerators that have connections to culinary water sources.
Although there is no longer a cross connection, the city has scheduled contractors to permanently remedy the lines where the cross connection occurred. That work is expected to be completed by the early part of next week. Once the water has been determined to be safe, the city will issue another notice for residents to flush their home water systems as indicated in the attached instructions from the Health Department.
Again, this will likely occur the early part of next week.
We encourage residents to notify neighbors of the advisory.

The city has set up an after hours hotline at 801-643-5775 for any questions. During normal business hours (Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.), the city may be contacted at 801-825-7253.

Lockport continues to provide water for residents under “do not drink” order

LOCKPORT, N.Y. (WIVB) – About 190 Lockport residents have been asked to use bottled water for drinking, cooking, washing dishes, and brushing teeth until further notice, or bring their own containers to the fire department to pick up safe drinking water, after a backflow event may have sent a hydroseeding product into the water lines.
The advisory affects residents near Anna Merritt Elementary School and North Park Junior High.
Lockport’s water distribution maintenance supervisor, Dale Lawson, tells News 4 a Lancaster-based company, Northeast Paving, had been using a city fire hydrant for hydroseeding on the elementary school lawn when the backflow occurred. Lawson says that company did not have a current permit to use the hydrant and the city could now likely fine or sue the company, although the final decision is in the hands of the city’s leaders and its lawyers. When asked about potential repercussions for the company involved, Mayor Anne McCaffrey said, “We are going to have to check into that. Certainly, anybody who is connecting up to the city water supply, we need to know about that for reasons like this.”
City leaders say when they were informed of the situation, crews immediately flushed the system. Lawson says there were no chemicals in the product involved in the backflow, only grass seed and a paper pulp.
He adds that the flushing operation was highly effective at immediately removing the product from the system so the risk of contamination to the drinking water is very small. The “do not drink” advisory was issued just to be safe while the city waits for results of a water quality test. Those results are expected to come back in Wednesday.
In the meantime, residents in the affected area can bring their own containers to the fire station at the municipal building to get safe drinking water. Firefighters will be standing by to fill those containers until 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Students swill on low grade water after drinking fountain found connected to recycled system

St Peter's College principal Tim Hogan says the school is working with the Department of
St Peter's College principal Tim Hogan says the school is working with the Department of Health to identify any health risks the recycled water could have had on students who drank it.
THE Department of Health is investigating how a drinking water fountain at a Cranbourne school was connected to recycled water, and what adverse effects may have been suffered by students who drank from it for more than a year.
St Peter’s College Principal Tim Hogan told Leader a fountain at the school’s east campus was connected to Class A recycled water following landscaping works at the school in December, 2013.
Class A recycled water is the highest class of reclaimed water and is intended for uses such as watering gardens and the irrigation of crops grown for human consumption.
“The Department of Health and Human Services has been working with the school to assess any potential health impacts but we are not aware of any student illnesses as a result of this cross connection,” Mr Hogan said.
“Advice we have received from the department is that drinking the Class A recycled water may have led to a slightly increased risk of gastro.
“I should point out that there has been thorough testing of all drinking water outlets at the campus and no other issues have been found.”
The problem was detected by a maintenance worker and the college was alerted on April 1. Mr Hogan said the fountain was immediately disconnected.
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City Of Jerome Official Reminds Public to Test Backflow Device







By KMVT News







The City of Jerome Ordinance number 1096 was passed in July of 2012 requiring Backflow devices to be tested at least once a year by June 1st. Therefore, devices must pass a performance based operational test by an approved Licensed Backflow Test no later than June 1st this year as well. A list of Licensed testers is available at www.cityofjerome.com or in the Utility office located at 152 E. Ave A street in Jerome. For more information, call Public Works at (208) 324-9669.

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Family wins lawsuit over sewage contamination of their drinking, bathing water

A Commerce City family wins a lawsuit over sewage contamination of their drinking and bathing water.