Utah City Celebrates Holidays With Boil Water Order
By Peak Johnson
It was a difficult holiday season for residents living in Lindon City, UT. A boil water advisory for their drinking water was issued on Dec. 23 after a water sample tested positive for E-coli.
According to Tech Times, Lindon’s administrator issued a boil order as a safety measure after locating the contamination in the city’s water supply. A majority of the residential neighborhoods and industries in Lindon had been informed to either use bottled water “or tap water boiled for a minimum of one minute and cooled before using for cooking and drinking purposes.”
E. coli contamination is caused when water comes into contact with human or animal waste. When food or water contaminated with fecal material is consumed, humans can develop an E. coli infection.
The symptoms of infection include “nausea, cramps, diarrhea, headache, abdominal cramping, vomiting, fever, and fatigue. Toddlers, kids and elderly people are at higher risk of infection because of their weak immune system.”
The Lindon City administrator released a press release on Christmas Eve indicating that residents should prepare their households while stocking up on water bottles and other items while they are still in stores.
Since the advisory was placed, Lindon City has been working with the Utah County Health Department and the Utah Department of Environmental Quality to disinfect the city's water supply.
According to the advisory boil order, “bacterial contamination can occur when a large amount of run-off goes into the supply of drinking water, when distribution pipes break, or when something goes wrong in the water treatment process.”
The city authorities have been working on locating the potential source of the contamination.
The day after Christmas, Lindon released a statement announcing that the advisory had been lifted with additional information as to what residents should do next.
To prevent a contamination such as this from happening again, Lindon said in its statement that they are routinely testing water and that samples are taken every other week. The city is also working to install chlorination systems in all of its wells.
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