It was all hands on-deck last weekend for City of Bartlesville staff, when an abrupt announcement by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality that it was placing the City’s water system on a “boil order” was posted on the agency’s website and Facebook page Saturday afternoon.
The order, which advised water customers to boil water for 60 seconds before ingesting it, came after a sample collected on July 10 at one of the system’s 40 sampling sites, at 21st Street and Dewey Avenue, showed a positive test result for the E. coli bacteria.
“We have never had a sample test positive for E. coli, so we immediately reached out to the ODEQ for guidance,” said Water Utilities Director Terry Lauritsen. “We were advised to retest as soon as possible and continue flushing the area of the site, which is what we did.”
Subsequent test results were negative for E. coli; however, a follow-up sample from the same location on Friday showed a positive result for coliform, which is harmless by itself but an indicator of bacterial activity.
“This test result triggered an automatic boil order for the City’s water system, which we learned about on Saturday afternoon when the ODEQ posted the order on their website and Facebook page, and simultaneously contacted the water treatment plant superintendent.”
Lauritsen began trying to contact the ODEQ to confirm the information.
“We were surprised by it because, while we were aware of the test results in the previous days, we were under the impression the subsequent samples showing negative results for E. coli, coupled with the fact that everything within the system was working exactly as it should, would mean there was no need for a boil order. We later learned the positive coliform test result after the positive E. coli result automatically triggered the order.”
The order was put in place Saturday afternoon and was removed Sunday evening, when test results for samples representative of the entire system were negative for all contaminants.
As Lauritsen worked with the Water Utilities team to ensure the water was indeed safe, the City’s Communications staff worked to distribute the information to the public.
“As soon as we were able to confirm that the water plant was operating optimally and there were no other issues within the system, we turned our attention to how to best alert the public of the order. We worked with the City’s Communications staff to disperse the information utilizing all of the City’s communications tools,” Lauritsen said.
That information was posted as it became available on the City’s website, Facebook page and mobile app. Press releases were sent to local and requesting Tulsa media outlets, an FAQ was produced and two special editions of the City’s e-newsletter, City Beat, were emailed to thousands of subscribers.
So what was the cause of the positive E. coli test result? Lauritsen and his team are working diligently to figure that out.
“There are several ways E. coli can be introduced to the system: Catastrophic failure at the water treatment plant, a break in the water main, a sampling error, a lab error, or an anomaly at the sampling site,” Lauritsen said.
“There was nothing abnormal with the water treatment plant. We were producing safe, clean water before, during, and after the affected sample was pulled. There hadn’t been any water main breaks in that area within the past six months. The person who pulled the sample is well trained and familiar with the process, and the lab is a State-certified lab.
“That leaves an anomaly with the sample site. I believe, based on all the information we have, that this is the most likely cause. The design of the hydrant at that location would have allowed something — perhaps a worm or a snake — to crawl into it, where it could have died and introduced E. coli into the system at that isolated site. That is the most plausible explanation for the detection of the bacteria in such a confined location.”
Lauritsen said this theory is further supported by the fact that all tests throughout the City’s water system, including the two adjacent to the 21st Street and Dewey Avenue site, were negative for both E. coli and coliform at all points during and after the event.
“If you have a problem at one location, you will see that in other locations as well, particularly the sites adjacent to the initial site,” he said. “We have not seen that. Everything else within the system was and is working exactly as it should. I think the public was under the impression that everything was contaminated and there was no safe water to drink, and that’s not true.”
City Manager Mike Bailey said staff will begin working this week to identify areas that could be improved upon should a similar situation occur in the future.
“While I firmly believe this situation was handled appropriately and with the public’s interest top of mind, I know there is always something to be learned in handling these types of emergencies,” Bailey said. “We will meet this week to begin looking at how we responded as an organization and how we might improve based on this experience. We will also review the protocols of our State partners and how we might work more closely with them in the future.”