After three weeks of a boil-water advisory, the 8,500 residents were hoping for the all-clear today, so they could have a shower, brush their teeth, and maybe even a glass of water without hauling 5-gallon carboys of water around the house.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called in to help with the outbreak of Salmonellas that has so far sickened 389, found two different parasites — giardia and cryptosporidium — present in the water system before it was flushed with high doses of chlorine last week.
The city remains on a "boil order" requiring residents to boil water before drinking it or using it for cooking.
A thorough investigation into the intricacies of a municipal water supply becoming contaminated can be found in the Walkerton Commission of Inquiry, held after E. coli O157:H7 got into the water supply of Walkerton, Ontario in 2000, sickening half the town of 5,000 and killing seven.