Rexburg water advisory may be lifted Tuesday
Published at | Updated at
UPDATE: The water advisory was lifted Tuesday afternoon. Click here for details.
REXBURG – A water advisory issued by the Department of Environmental Quality could be lifted as early as noon Tuesday.
Businesses using Rexburg city water have been forced to take precautionary measures since the advisory went into effect late last week.
A recent water sample measuring a type of bacteria called coliform exceeded the standard of five percent but not by much.
“In order to be in compliance with the State of Idaho, and EPA drinking water quality requirements, we do 40 samples of our drinking water each month,” Rexburg Public Works Director John Millar said.
Two of those samples are allowed to comeback positive for coliform but this time three samples, or 7.5%, exceeded standards. It was enough for the DEQ to issue the temporary water advisory on food establishments.
Millar says a change in water usage and a change in temperature could have led to the bad water test.
“We use three or four times as much water in the summer as we do the winter, so that kind of shocks the system a little bit,” Millar said. “Temperature has changed and there’s some evidence that it sometimes will free up organisms that are in the pipe.”
According to Millar the organism itself isn’t a contaminant but an indicator of a possible contaminant.
“It’s normally occurring organisms that are found everywhere in nature,” Millar said.
Dylan Makemson, the owner of Gator Jacks, said business hasn’t slowed down much because of the advisory.
“Luckily we switched to pure sugar glass bottle Pepsi and so we’ve been pushing those a lot more than our fountain drinks,” Makemson said. “We sold out of our bottled water pretty much instantly during our lunch rush, and then we had to go and purchase more just so we could keep up with the demand.”
The samples were tested again Monday morning and showed zero pollutants. An additional test is required before DEQ lifts the advisory.
“We have super quality water, and we do everything we can to protect that quality,” Millar said.
If the final test comes back clean the advisory should be lifted Tuesday before noon.
Officials say the protocol for testing water will be changed spring of 2016.
Updates on the advisory can be found on Rexburg.org.
A letter, issued to Rexburg businesses, included the following instructions:
“Idaho Food Code requires that a food establishment provide safe, potable water for drinking, food preparation, warehousing and handwashing uses at all times. The following temporary precautions should govern until the water system that serves your establishment achieves compliance.
1. All drinking, ice-making and food prep water must come from an approved source such as commercially bottled water.
2. Heat all cooked foods which are mixed with water to at least 165 F for 15 seconds before serving. Do not add uncooked water unless it is from an approved source such as bottled water.
3. After proper handwashing, employees must either dip their hands in sanitizer or wear disposable plastic gloves before handling food or clean dishes.
4. Washing of fresh vegetables and fruits which will not be cooked before serving must be done with safe water, such as: bottled; pre-boiled; or with a mild sanitizer (bleach at 50 ppm (parts per million), Quaternary at 220 ppm, or Iodine at 12.5 ppm)
5. Water for sanitizing utensils and equipment must be properly sanitized using either water above 160 F or water that is at least 50-100 ppm chlorine bleach sanitizer.
6. Post-Mix fountain beverage machines should not be used until water source is approved by DEQ.