Parasites found in water supply

By Jesse Stephenson and Jeremy Shaver

Greeley Tribune

A parasite found in Greeley's water supply prompted city leaders Tuesday night to order residents to boil all tap water used for drinking and cooking.

The parasite, giardia lamblia, can cause prolonged diarrhea, loss of appetite and abdominal pain. Water customers in Greeley, Evans and Windsor could be affected, as could workers at the Kodak Colorado Division plant in Windsor.

Residents should bring water to a full, rolling boil before consumption.

Water department officials could not say Tuesday night how long the boil order will be in effect. They also offered no explanation for how live giardia wound up in treated water.

The water department has no record of a malfunction at the Bellvue treatment plant, which is north of Fort Collins and is the source of the contaminated water.

Greeley Water and Sewer Director Jon Monson said giardia was detected in a sample of water taken at the plant Aug. 30.

Monson got the test results about noon Tuesday. But he waited until about 7:30 p.m.Tuesday to issue the boil order primarily because department officials converged for a lengthy discussion on the best course of action.

"We have been talking it over, trying to figure out whether this is as serious as we think it is," he said. Greeley residents, nonetheless, took swift action and lined up at grocery stories Tuesday night to buy bottled water by the cart load.

Health department officials are expected to go to the Bellvue plant today to help determine what hap- pened, said John Pickle, director of the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment.

Monson said giardia levels have been unusually high in the Poudre River, which supplies raw water to the Bellvue plant.

The water department is taking immediate action to reduce any additional risk of giardia infection among people who get water from the Greeley system.

Monson said he's unsure how long water that might contain giardia will remain in the Greeley water system, but officials will keep the boil order in place until they are certain the system is free of the parasite. A second 24-hour sampling will be conducted today by an independent laboratory in Loveland, Monson said.

Until further testing confirms treated water from the Bellvue plant is giardia-free, the water department will treat raw water from the Colorado Big Thompson River instead of the Poudre.

After getting news of the boil order Tuesday night, police and fire officials mobilized employees to help notify residents.

Police Chief Paul Branham ordered all police officers and dispatchers to notify every resident they contact of the boil-water order.

Fire Chief Bill Martin, who is Greeley's emergency management coordinator, ordered that schools and nursing homes be contacted as well.

Martin said he also would call area grocery stores to alert them that they would be wise to order extra quantities of bottled water.

North Colorado Medical Center was notified about the contamination after the announcement was made during the city council meeting, hospital spokesman Gene Haffner said.

"At this point, we will be pulling all water from patient rooms and all prescriptions will be given to patients with juices, bottled water and soda if necessary," Haffner said. "If water needs to be used for consumption, it will be boiled."

As of Tuesday night, emergency room physicians had not treated anyone with giardia or with giardia-related symptoms, he said.

After the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment was notified of the contam- ination Tuesday night, it began working to establish a hot line that residents may call to get more in- formation about giardia and the precautions they should take, said Char Davis, the department's supervisor for consumer health programs.

Since the mid-1990s, the Environmental Protection Agency has required water departments to test for giardia in treated water once a year. But, unlike many other contaminants, the EPA has not established the level at which giardia is considered harmful.

Monson said giardia has never been detected in treated water in the 14 years the city had tested for it.

"I was upset. I was very upset," Monson said. "This is the first time in my career I have issued a boil-water order, and it should be my last."

-- Dog Gone (layinglow@rollover.now), September 08, 1999

Answers

Monson's distraught over having to issue a boil-water order? Gee, times are sure hard!

-- Jay Urban (jurban@berenyi.com), September 08, 1999.

I live near Eastland, Texas and we are currently under a boil-water order. Supposedly, the treatment plant's pumps were off for a couple of hours and when the operator realized it he dumped a bunch of chemicals in the system, contaminating the water. I am not sure if it is contaminated because the pumps were off or it is poisoned because of too many chemicals. I am glad that we had been storing water in two litre bottles. Oh well, just more prepping for y2k I guess.

-- Sharon (sking@drought-ridden.com), September 08, 1999.

Been to Greeley, more cows there than people in the city of Denver. All of the little parasites in their gastrointestional tracts have to go somewhere!

-- cath (fin@llyGI.com), September 08, 1999.

After spending the last two years researching Y2K and some of its more tangental issues, I now know more about nothing than I ever did. Although I dispair of remembering the link, I did read this about giardia:

The puppy is nearly immune to chlorine treatments at this point, and there are no good tests for the cysts. The water departments just wait until people start checking into the hopsital with the symptoms noted above, then they issue a 'boil water' alert.

Here is the Y2K connection... household chlorine bleach can ususally be relied upon to sterilize water in an emergency. But if giardia is a problem in your area, or if the chlorine treatment does not seem to work, one way to solve the riddle is to boil your water. Now this can use a lot of precious fuel. The only other alternative I know of is to filter the water through a 2 micron (or less) nominal filter. This is the reason I bought a Katadyne water filter (.2 microns and 10K gallon capacity). Beware, no filter costing less than $100 can really meet your needs in terms of pore size and capacity.

Sincerely,

-- Uhmm.. (jfcp81a@prodigy.com), September 08, 1999.

Another solution to beasties in the water - solar pasteurization:

http://www.acces sone.com/~sbcn/sunandwater.htm

They also have an inexpensive reusable pasteurization indicator.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), September 08, 1999.

Infestation of parasites, worms etc. have always been a problem for us mortals. We have simply forgotten that previous generations always knew how to take care of the problem.

If you live in the U.S., you will know our good ole cut-burn-and-drug- you-silly modern medical establishment has pretty much ignored the need for regular 'cleansing' against such things. They wait til your good and sick before they 'help' you.

My in-laws are from the old country, and my spouse was administered concoctions on a regular basis for maintenance of this and other problems. Learn how to deal with it.

Start with a good old fashioned parasite cleanse:

http://www.drclark.ch/info/p_chart.htm

Then top it off with a tapeworm cleanse:

http://www.drclark.ch/info/tapeworm.htm

You will do wonders for your future health and wellbeing knowing how to deal with this problem. And for craps sake, a decent water filter will take care of the giardia cyst problem, I think 5 microns may do it, but it could need something just a wee bit smaller. Read the box labels.

-- OR (orwelliator@biosys.net), September 08, 1999.

Giardia Lamblia and it's equally common cousin Cryptosporidim Parvum are EXCEEDINGLY common water pathogens in the United States and other "first world" nations. "Developing" nations more commonly have viral infestations in their water supply. The good news is that both organisms are BIG and can be caught by virtually all backcountry water filters. The rule is 3 microns or less, but in actuality you could probably get away with a 5 micron filter. Bacteria and viruses are much smaller and the only water filters that get them all are 0.1 microns or smaller. Alternatively you can kill all bacteria and viruses (but not giardia and crypto) by boiling water for 1 minute--3 minutes if you live above 6562 feet. As my microbiology professor so astutely put it--"those wee beasties will getcha!"

-- cath (fin@llyGI.com), September 08, 1999.