Lengthy boil order in Cape County district persists for two weeks

Update: The Missouri Department of National Resources lifted this boil order issued to customers of Cape Girardeau County Public Water Supply District #2 Thursday afternoon.

A boil order issued to customers of a Cape Girardeau County water supply district is still in effect two weeks after it began Dec. 22.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) issued a boil order for customers of Cape Girardeau County Public Water Supply District (PWSD) #2 after a source water sample revealed the presence of E. coli bacteria.

The presence of E. coli indicates the water may have been contaminated with human or animal waste, according to a public notice of the boil order.

Cape Girardeau County PWSD #2 services a 75-square-mile area including the far west side of Jackson, Millersville and Burfordville.

According to Ashley Burns, an employee of PWSD #2, the water district's service area includes subdivisions such as Oak Creek, Twin Oaks, Indian Springs and Saddlebrooke.

Resident Jill Johnston learned of the boil order through her neighborhood's Facebook page. She said she and her family are "big water drinkers" and live in the water district.

"We have been using bottled water to drink and make coffee, wash vegetables, etc," Johnston said.

Ever since a sample positive for E coli was taken Dec. 20, Jason Kirkman said the DNR has worked with the water supply district to fix the issue. Kirkman serves as a public drinking water supervisor for the Southeast Regional office of the DNR.

Kirkman said the boil order has lasted so long because of a delay in receiving an evaluation from a third-party engineer.

The evaluation would determine whether PWSD #2 uses an adequate amount of chlorine to prevent E coli from entering its water distribution system.

"We were expecting that to be done by about the 29th of December after we contacted the engineer on the 27th," Kirkman said. "Normally, we don't contact the engineer; it's up to the district to do that, but we were anxious to get the district off of the water order."

Burns said the evaluation, called a Contact Time (CT) evaluation, was completed and sent to the DNR Wednesday afternoon.

As of presstime Wednesday night, the boil order had not been lifted. It may be lifted this morning, Burns said.

Failure to meet testing requirements

Cape Girardeau County PWSD #2 received a notice of a violation from the DNR in October after staff failed to complete all necessary bacteria monitoring requirements.

According to Kirkman, water districts are required to collect bacteriological samples every month to ensure water meets health standards.

A sample taken at the water district in October showed the presence of coliform bacteria. Coliform is common and typically harmless, according to Kirkman, but its presence may indicate the presence of other bacteria that may cause harm.

DNR requires water supply districts to test for fecal indicators at multiple sites after the detection of coliform. PWSD #2 received a violation after staff failed to collect samples at all necessary sites after the coliform detection.

"Once they got the violation letter, they pulled source samples in December," Kirkman said. "When they pulled those source samples, we detected E coli in one of the wells."

The DNR collected five additional source samples after the boil order was issued Dec. 22. All showed positive results for E coli, Kirkman said.

Water samples collected last week showed clean results, Burns said.

Boil order updates for Cape Girardeau County PWSD #2 are posted on www.cgcpwsd2.com.