UPDATE: ALL CLEAR — As of 2:34 p.m. Tuesday, the state Department of Environmental Quality lifted the boil order for the City of Kingfisher's municipal water supply, declaring it once again safe for human consumption.

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Retail bottled water supplies were depleted and area restaurant business disrupted in the wake of a city notice distributed Saturday afternoon warning of E. coli contamination in the Kingfisher water supply.

The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality issued a “boil order” for any water intended to be consumed, either as a beverage, in food preparation or for brushing teeth.

E. coli is a bacteria present in animal and human waste, which may have found its way to one of the city’s water wells during recent heavy rains and flooding.

Most strains of E. coli are harmless to humans, but ingesting contaminated water or food can cause symptoms commonly associated with food poisoning – diarrhea, abdominal cramping and vomiting.

Infants, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems are the most vulnerable.

The city received notification from the DEQ about 1:30 p.m. Saturday that E. coli was detected in untreated water test samples submitted from Well No. 12, one of the 13 wells that currently provide water for the city.

By 1:45 p.m., the well was shut down and a crew of 31 city employees plus four spouses who volunteered were sent door-to-door with printed notices mandated by DEQ.

The boil order is mandatory for a minimum of 72-hours after the contaminated well was shut down, which means the earliest it will be lifted is 2 p.m. Tuesday, Slezickey said.

Erin Hatfield, DEQ communications director, said the boil order was issued under the federal groundwater rule that addresses E. coli contamination in wells and requires DEQ engineers to conduct an assessment of the contaminated well.

DEQ engineers were in Kingfisher Tuesday afternoon but their assessment was not completed prior to press time for Wednesday’s paper.

Because the contaminated well is offline, Hatfield said the boil order may be lifted before corrective action is taken on the well itself, once the water supply is deemed safe to drink.

“Kingfisher is fortunate that the water system has many wells and is not reliant on the contaminated well to provide enough water for the water system. Therefore, the boil order can be suspended before the corrective actions for the contaminated well are completed,” she said.

“The contaminated well will not be returned to service until corrective actions are completed and DEQ has determined the well is capable of providing safe drinking water.”

First to be notified Saturday of the boil order were the hospital, nursing homes, RV parks, motels, restaurants and convenience stores serving fountain drinks over ice, Slezickey said.

Additionally, four city employees came in Saturday to answer phone calls from concerned water customers.

The mandatory warnings distributed to water customers advised them to bring water to a full boil for one minute and then allow the water to cool before drinking, using it in food preparation or for brushing teeth.

Alternatively, bottled water is recommended for those purposes until the boil order is lifted.

City Manager Dave Slezickey said the bacterial contamination was found in an untreated raw water sample at a single well. The sample was collected on Friday and submitted to DEQ, which notified Slezickey and Water Supt. Jeremiah Homier via cell phone Saturday afternoon.

“I appreciate the diligence of our employees and volunteers in getting the word out. The majority of our customers were notified by 7:30 p.m. and the last notice was distributed at 9:30 p.m.,” Slezickey said. “Inadvertently, someone may not have received a notice, but best efforts were made to hand deliver or post to every customer.”

Kingfisher’s water supply is drawn from 13 wells and then comingled before a dual treatment process – first at the raw water storage and pre-treatment plant and then at the water plant where it is then distributed, first to water towers then to about 2,800 residential and commercial customers (see Page 1 graphic).

Some local restaurants closed on Sunday and remained closed while the order was in place, while others served only bottled beverages or used bottled water to prepare other beverages and food.

United Supermarket suspended onsite food preparation and posted signs in its meat department that fresh meat would not be cut in the store until the boil order is lifted.

Although Sonic was not serving food, it opened its drive-through window to distribute bottled water to those who needed it Monday.

Kingfisher City-County Emergency Management Director Steve Loftis also found alternate sources for bottled water, which were distributed Tuesday morning.

In the meantime, the city is complying with an ODEQ treatment protocol to ensure the drinking water is safe and flushed lines at fire hydrants to eliminate any potentially contaminated water from the system.

Hatfield said “it is very possible” that the contamination is related to recent flooding, but noted that well No. 12 may have construction flaws that allowed the bacteria to enter the well during a flood event.

“We will know more after DEQ engineers conduct the assessment of the contaminated well,” she said.

Hatfield noted that Kingfisher’s water supply is the only one in the state to test positive for the bacteria following the May 2019 flooding so far.

“Several water systems in the state are still under precautionary boil advisories due to flooding of water system facilities and loss of water pressure due to line breaks following flooding,” she said. “DEQ anticipates the possibility of further impacts from the May floods, including possible additional E. coli positive water samples in drinking water systems.”

Additionally, at least 24 private water wells in Oklahoma have tested positive for total coliforms and of those, seven tested positive for E. coli, Hatfield said.

The contamination notice has brought a flood of concerned calls from water customers at both City Hall and to Loftis’ emergency management office.

Slezickey said some of the panicked callers to City Hall were mistakenly confusing E. coli with ebola, a rare and deadly airborne respiratory virus which generally originates outside the U.S.

“There’s absolutely no connection between the two,” he said.

Slezickey said phone calls will be made to local restaurants and businesses as soon as the boil order is suspended, a decision scheduled to be made after this issue goes to press Tuesday.

Notification also will be made on the city and newspaper Facebook pages.