Baltimore City officials are shrinking the scope of the tap water boil advisory area after water quality from new samples improved and did not show E. coli bacteria. City leaders recommended that all households within the original advisory area still flush their water systems using cold water. The city expects to offer a 25% discount on the water bill for all city residents next month.
It’s been five days since Baltimore officials first discovered E. coli bacteria in water samples collected on the city’s west side. The latest batch of water samples collected on Monday evening and Tuesday morning spanned 25 sites. Only one still had positive results; the Baltimore Police Department Western District building in the 1000 block of North Mount Street.
Thousands of residents in the Harlem Park and Sandtown neighborhoods have been boiling tap water since a city advisory on Monday. Yesterday, communities across southwest Baltimore County were advised to boil tap water as a cautionary measure, including Arbutus, Halethorpe and Lansdowne.
“We will get this issue resolved in a timely fashion,” Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott said in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. “This isn’t something that can be resolved overnight. We are continuing to test locations throughout the city and around the county.”
The Baltimore City Department of Public Works discovered E. coli bacteria after routine testing on Friday and confirmed by a second test on Saturday. The city informed the Maryland Department of the Environment about the first round of water samples contaminated with E. coli bacteria and the state agency has been working with the city to deal with the issue.
The Baltimore City Health Department has not received any confirmed cases of illness from E. coli so far but the city is investigating two reports of gastrointestinal illnesses of residents who live in the neighborhoods where the boil notice was issued.
The city began remediation measures earlier this week such as adding more chlorine to the water treatment plants which flow into the residential pipes or flushing out fire hydrants with potentially contaminated water.
The city’s department of public works regularly assesses 90 locations throughout the water distribution system. But it was not immediately clear how the water had become contaminated.
“We had a water main break in that area, and that could be a potential location. We’re looking at our valves, then we'll be checking our chlorinated levels,” Jason Mitchell, Baltimore City’s Public Works director told WYPR’s Midday program host Tom Hall on Tuesday.
DPW officials plan to lift the boil water notice as soon as the water has been tested as safe to drink.
“We are still investigating the system,” Mitchell said Wednesday afternoon. “We’re looking at anything that might disrupt the water system in that area.”
