The Department of Public Works has posted the following information about the status of Bedford’s water on the Town’s website, https://www.town.bedford.ma.us/index.php/departments/public-works/dpw-home. The Bedford Citzen is reprinting the DPW’s web content for your convenience.
“Tests Showed Total Coliform Bacteria in Bedford Water”
This is a notice as required by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
Our water system recently violated a drinking water standard. Although this is not an emergency, as our customers you have a right to know what happened and what we are doing to correct this situation.
We routinely monitor for drinking water contaminants. We took 233 samples for total coliform bacteria during July and early August 2012. 161 of these samples showed the presence of total coliform bacteria. The standard is that no more than one sample per month may do so.
What does this mean?
This is not an emergency. If it had been you would have been notified within 24 hours. Total coliform bacteria are generally not harmful themselves. Coliforms are bacteria which are naturally present in the environment and are used as an indicator that potentially-harmful, bacteria may be present. While none of the potentially harmful bacteria were found, coliforms were found in more samples than allowed and this was a warning of potential problems.
Usually, coliforms are a sign that there could be a problem with the system’s treatment or distribution system (pipes). Whenever we detect coliform bacteria in any sample, we do follow-up testing to see if other bacteria of greater concern, such as fecal coliform or E. coli, are present. We did not find any of these bacteria in our subsequent testing. If we had, we would have notified you immediately.
What should I do?
You do not need to boil your water or take other corrective actions. However, if you have specific health concerns, consult your doctor.
If you have a severely compromised immune system, have an infant, are pregnant, or are elderly, you may be at increased risk and should seek advice from your health care providers about drinking this water. General guidelines on ways to lessen the risk of infection by microbes are available from EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791.
What is being done?
The extremely hot weather recently has made it easier for bacteria to grow in the water system. This has made it difficult to maintain enough residual chlorine in the water supply to keep the water free of bacteria. At present, we are still detecting coliform bacteria. With assistance from the MWRA and under the direction of the Mass. Department of Environmental Protection, Bedford is working to restore enough chlorine residual to the water system to kill off the bacteria. The Water Division has been flushing hydrants to move water with a higher chlorine residual to the far ends of the distribution system. The Pine Hill tank has been taken out of use for the time being. Bedford is also planning longer-term measures to keep this problem from recurring. Computerized hydraulic modeling of the distribution system and a chlorination investigation will be done. The water main supplying the Pine Hill tank will be cleaned and lined. These efforts will assist us in making further decisions to keep the system free of coliform bacteria in the future.
Please share this information with all the other people who drink this water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (for example, people in apartments, nursing homes, schools, and businesses). You can do this by posting this notice in a public place or distributing copies by hand or mail.
This notice is being sent to you by the Bedford Department of Public Works, PWS ID #3023000.
For more information, please contact Peter W. Churchill, Water Systems Operations Manager at 1-781-275-7605.
Date distributed: August 14, 2012.
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no wonder we see all the hydrant flushing going on. I’m switching to bottled water for drinking water. I hate doing that cause of the plastic, but at least I recycle every plastic bottle