By John Henderer, The Chronicle, 4/15/98
Pe Ell town residents must boil their water - possibly through February 1999 - to ensure it's not contaminated with microorganisms, health officials say.
Lewis County Health Officer Dr. Tom Bell issued the notice Tuesday in response to unresolved, long-standing water system problems that appear to be worsening.
Citizens should boil for five minutes any water used for drinking, cooking and food preparation. Boiling bath water and laundry water is not necessary.
County health workers advised Pe Ell restaurants and food establishments of the concern Tuesday, asking businesses to shut off ice machines and to stop using tap water to wash vegetables.
School water fountains were reportedly covered.
Bell said he decided to issue the order after learning of heightened concerns from the Department of Health in a meeting Monday.
"These three people from the state water system said they wouldn't drink the water. That's all I needed to hear," Bell said.
Town Mayor John Penberth, who said he has tried unsuccessfully for months to get government grants, saw a silver lining in the order.
"(I hope) this dilemma that we're in will move us up on everybody's list for funding," Penberth said.
Pe Ell ranked last on a funding priorities list of 19 projects at Lewis County.
An interim solution - ozone treatment - would cost $150,000 and would probably take until February 1999 to install, said Ellen Winningham, state Department of Health drinking water compliance manager.
"The long term (solution) is pretty clear: They need a new treatment plant and they need a new distribution system" or piping, Winningham said.
This could cost roughly $2 million.
"We just don't have that money lying around," Penberth said.
He planned to telephone Gov. Gary Locke today, asking him to declare the town of Pe Ell in a state of emergency.
Health officials said Pe Ell's water system does not effectively filter water, possibly letting microbiological contaminants slip by unnoticed. In addition, the city's pipes - some of which are made from wooden slats - leak like a sieve.
Tests have shown 73 percent of the water leaving the treatment plant never reaches customers.
It "somehow disappears," said Bill Liechty, Department of Health drinking water section leader for Southwest Washington. "This is the highest (loss) that I've had experience with."
Leaks in the piping are so bad they could allow contaminated groundwater to seep into the pipes through a siphoning action. This problem, known as infiltration, could hobble even the short-term fix, unless engineers can show the system's water pressure is high enough to prevent the seepage, Winningham said.
Pe Ell has been under an administrative order from the state to fix the problems, but is out of compliance, Liechty said. State officials are drafting a new order.
Pe Ell's 615 residents received notice last month of a technical violation under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, noting the water system's filters were not working. High turbidity, which results, can cause health problems.
Health officials worried contamination could allow in giardia, cryptosporidium, hepatitis A, E. coli 0157:H7 and other intestinal viruses.
A cryptosporidium outbreak in Milwaukee several years ago sickened more than 300,000 people, Winningham said. Health officials learned of the problem there when pharmacists notified them they were running out of anti-diarrhea medicines.
No one has become sick in Pe Ell from the water, to the knowledge of health officials, but it could happen.
"We like to ? act before people start to get sick," Bell said.
In the meantime, Bell said, some citizens may want to purchase their own water treatment systems.
Lengthy boil-water orders are nothing new. Hoodsport had a similar order for more than a year, and another town for about five years, Winningham said.
Besides attending next week's town council meeting, the state Department of Health plans to hold a town hall meeting on the problem within about two weeks.