On July 12th, the McCloud Community Services District (MCSD) sent out notices to the community that due to a recent event of a water sample testing positive for E-Coli in the McCloud CSD water system, all residents are to boil tap water before drinking or cooking.
MCSD General Manager Amos McAbier, along with the California Department of Health Services and the Siskiyou County Health Department advises residents to let the water boil for one minute and let it cool before using, or use bottled water until further notice. They will inform the community when tests show no bacteria and people will no longer need to boil the water. The MCSD will retest the town’s water supply on Monday.
The McCloud Fire Department firefighters are going door to door handing out the notices. These notices are also being posted on public forums.
“This positive E-Coli sample was low (1MPN in 100ML) and may have been a sampling error, but this needs to be treated seriously. We will be chlorinating the MCSD distribution system until we can verify that the lab results can confirm that there are no E-Coli in our water system.”
Drinking contaminated water containing E-Coli can cause stomach upset, nausea and vomiting, intestine issues, and possibly urinary tract infections.
Crystal Geyser donated two flats of cases of bottled water for McCloud residents to use. Cases of bottled water are available to pick up at the MCSD parking lot at 220 West Minnesota Avenue.
One longtime resident, Lisa Walera says, “I say bring back the redwood water pipelines. We never had this problem back in the day.”
We also didn’t have holding tanks to assure water usage during droughts back in the day either.
For more information, call the McCloud Community Services District at (530) 964-2017 or California Department of Health Services-Drinking Water Field Operations Branch District Office at (530) 224-4800 or Local Environmental Health Jurisdiction in Siskiyou County at (530) 841-2100.
Thank you Shareen for helping spread the word.