SPOKANE – Customers of a north Spokane water district have been advised to boil their drinking water after E. coli bacteria were found during a monthly check.
About 4,000 people in 1,300 homes and businesses are affected in Spokane County Water District No. 3, Dan Sander of the state Department of Health drinking water division said Friday.
It was not known whether anyone had become infected, but health officials urged water district customers with flulike symptoms to contact their health care providers.
A cause of the contamination was not immediately known after district employees checked the closed system’s wells and reservoirs for vandalism or tampering, said Sander and Ty Wick, the district’s general manager.
The presence of the bacteria was discovered in samples taken Monday as part of routine monthly testing, Sander said. E. coli was found in samples taken Wednesday morning during a retest, he said.
District workers chlorinated and flushed the water system, but the boil advisory will remain in effect until samples indicate the water is free of the coliform bacteria that generally is found in animal or human feces.
Sander and Wick said it is possible someone blowing out a yard irrigation system with high pressure air may have forced contamination into the system.
Each fall, many Spokane residents blow out their sprinkler systems to prevent pipes from freezing and bursting during winter. Backflow preventers are required, but some homeowners may not have installed them, Wick said.
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