Alamosa residents can once again drink water from their taps, more than three weeks after salmonella was discovered in the city’s water system.
Gov. Bill Ritter lifted the city’s “boil order” this afternoon, and minutes later, Alamosa City Clerk Judy Egbert said she took a sip from a tap.
“It tastes like chlorine,” Egbert said. “It’ll take awhile to get used to it.”
The southern Colorado city of about 10,000 was put on a “bottled-water order” March 19, after salmonella bacteria infecting the water supply began making residents sick.
Alamosa’s water comes from deep groundwater wells, which are theoretically protected from contamination, so it was not required to be chlorinated.
Now, the city’s water supply will be disinfected continually — like most drinking-water systems in the state — to help prevent future contamination.
Alamosa’s “bottled-water order” was changed to a “boil order” April 3, after city and state officials flushed the city’s water supply and distribution system with heavy doses of chlorine.
Residents were able to shower and wash clothes in city water but couldn’t drink it without boiling it.
Now, tests have confirmed no salmonella in the water — and no giardia or cryptosporidium, either, Egbert said. Those two parasites turned up in very sensitive tests of water pulled from taps before the chlorine flush but were absent from post-flush samples, she said.
“The citizens of Alamosa have shown their character and resiliency in getting through what has been a unique public-health emergency in Colorado,” Ritter said in a statement.
“While the state was able to quickly mobilize assistance to the community, I want to commend Alamosa city and county employees and its residents for working together during this hardship.”
As of April 8, Alamosa had reported 389 cases of likely salmonella infection, with 107 of those cases confirmed by laboratory testing. Sixteen people were hospitalized.
The investigation of the cause of the salmonella contamination in the water system is ongoing.
Katy Human: 303-954-1910 or khuman@denverpost.com
