East Hope advises residents to boil drinking water

EAST HOPE – The city of East Hope has advised residents to boil tap water before drinking after a mainline breakage was discovered Wednesday morning.

City officials posted a notice on Facebook Wednesday morning that a water issue had occurred on the west side of town and crews were investigating. Nearly an hour later an advisory was also posted on the Facebook page. Upon investigation, work crews were able to determine it was a mainline break that resulted in a drop of water pressure below 20psi.

Water pressure that low can be optimal conditions for contamination to enter the distribution system through backflow, by backpressure or back-siphonage, city officials said. This means there is a higher likelihood of contaminated drinking water, they said in the statement.

If the drinking water is indeed contaminated, East Hope officials said it could contain “disease-causing organisms” such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites. That is why the city released the advisory.

The advisory posts said that water from the tap should be boiled for no less than one minute and to use untreated water only to wash hands, as consuming contaminated, untreated water can lead to symptoms such as nausea, cramps, and diarrhea.

City Clerk Christy Franck said the break was determined to be at Mill Harbor and that the advisory was just a precautionary measure until proper testing can be returned. Franck said she personally drove water samples to a Coeur d’Alene testing facility and expected to have results tomorrow morning as early as 10 a.m. which could lead to lifting the advisory.

Updates will be released as they come to the city’s Facebook page.