Smithfield, NC has been under a boil-water advisory for the past couple of days as a result of the presence of coliform detected during routine testing. After further sampling, generic E. coli was found in the system (but water treatment seems to be working fine now).

Maybe I’m a bit sensitive to boil-water advisories because of my connections to Walkerton (the Ontario, Canada town where seven died and over 3000 became ill from E. coli O157 in the municipal water supply). In addition to marking my introduction to risk communication, I played hockey and baseball with a bunch of great dudes from the area while in Guelph and heard personal stories about the effects of the outbreak.

As I worked on my MSc and hanging out with the greenhouse vegetable industry in Leamington, Ontario, there seemed to be a boil-water advisory in the area every couple of months. Since there was a lot of municipal water used in packing sheds (mostly for washing tomatoes) each of the incidents triggered some sort of response by the on-the-ball producers. While some increased the amount of chlorine they were adding to the washing tanks (and implementing more frequent monitoring) the really keen producers removed water from the sorting system entirely for a couple of days — citing too much risk from introducing non-potable water.

Businesses that rely on potable water for production face a tough decision when the safety of supplies are in question.  In Smithfield,

health officials made the call for over 100 food-related businesses ordering closures until the boil-water advisory was lifted.

Larry Sullivan is director of the Environmental Health Division at the county’s health department. He said that while using bottled or boiled water works for households, it’s not a good enough solution for restaurants, which depend heavily on tap water.
"You still have hand washing, food prep and other things to consider," he said. "There’s also ice making."