ALAMOSA — The city will chlorinate its drinking water and use a sensitive test for organisms following an outbreak of salmonella last spring that spread through the municipal water system.
Public Works director Don Koskelin said the city signed the agreement Wednesday with the Colorado Department of Health and Environment. Before the outbreak, the city did not chlorinate its water, but it has agreed to do so at the rate of 1 to 2 milligrams per liter.
The agreement also calls for at least 10 tests per month of its water for a bacteria found in feces and at least 10 tests every three months for any organisms in the water.
More than 400 people were sickened by the outbreak that began in March.
One person who had salmonella died in the weeks after the outbreak, although state health department spokesman Mark Salley said that fatality wasn’t tallied because it was unclear whether salmonella was the cause of death.
