Whitestown — Whitestown’s ability to handle water management was questioned Monday, Oct. 2, by a Boone County health official.

Sharon Adams, an environment specialist for Boone County Health Services, appeared at the Boone County Commissioners meeting to state her concerns about Whitestown’s water.

Adams said the reason she decided to bring these concerns up with the board now is because of the recent news about Whitestown seeking to annex nearly 4,000 acres of Boone County. Also, she is afraid Whitestown may not know what they’re doing, and she believes they’ve been nonchalant about their water problems.

“The fact that they are being so dismissive about everything kind of shows to me they don’t exactly understand what they are doing over there,” Adams said.

Adams is concerned because the town’s water tested positive for E. coli on Aug. 28.

On Aug. 22, a Whitestown employee drove the town’s road grader up to the plant and managed to cause a chain reaction with the valves throughout the system.

“The main blew out of the ground on us,” Whitestown Utility Superintendent Darin Garrett said at an August town council meeting. “It was a mess.”

Whitestown Town Council member Carla Jackson said staff worked around the clock to fix the problem. She said it took a bit of time to get everyone working together, then they shut the water in town off for several hours. Whitestown was then put on a boil water advisory.

“Everyone worked around the clock to get this cleaned up,” Jackson said. “And Darin was being very cautious, more cautious than necessary probably to get everything fixed properly.”

On Aug. 27, Garrett said, a grab sample was taken to see if the water was clean. A day later the results came back, revealing the presence of E. coli in the water.

Jackson said she believes the cause of the E. coli presence was purely from the giant mess and back-syphonage after they lost an entire tower due to human error. However, Adams said she has never heard of a water break causing an E. coli outbreak.

“I don’t think I have ever heard of that happening,” Adams said.

However, Indiana Department of Environmental Management Public Information Officer Amy Hartsock said finding E. coli in water after a main break isn’t too unusual.

“It’s standard procedure after a break to run a test for the presence of coliforms,” Hartsock said. “So it is a possibility.”

Hartsock explained that after a main break a basic coliform bacteria test is ran. If anything shows positive, more specific tests for bacteria like E. coli are then taken.

And while E. coli is a fecal bacteria, Hartsock said it is difficult to say exactly where it came from when so much dirt gets mixed in, and when so many people are working to fix the problem.

In the past year, Whitestown has at least seven reports of bacteria in their water, resulting in a boil water advisory. No other water treatment facility has reported bacteria so many times.

“It’s highly unusual for them to have so many advisories,” Hartsock said.

According to Adams, the proper method for taking a grab sample is to take one as soon as possible after a main break, preferably within the same day. The fact that it was several days before a sample was taken means Whitestown residents probably had E. coli in their water for at least a week.

Also, Adams said, grab samples are supposed to show there is no presence of E. coli, not that it’s been “cleared up.”

“When people turn on the water faucet, they are expecting to have clean water,” Adams said in regards to Whitestown residents. “They would be foolish to make that assumption every day.”

Whitestown’s boil water advisory was lifted in early September after the water passed three required consecutive tests for E. coli.

What is E. Coli?

E. coli is one of the main species of bacteria that live in the lower intestines of mammals. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the E. coli strain causes illness in humans. Presence in surface water is a common indicator of fecal contamination. E. coli can be the causative agent of several intestinal and extra-intestinal infections such as urinary tract infections, meningitis, peritonitis, mastitis, septicemia and gram-negative pneumonia.

Source: www.wikipedia.org