Mystery of contamination continues after two weeks of boil water order
By Jennifer Crompton
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RYE, New Hampshire (WMUR) — A boil water order is going on its third week in Rye, affecting more than a thousand homes, and officials still don’t know the cause of the contamination.
“You want to rinse your toothbrush under the faucet — you can’t do that, you have to have a bottle of water in the bathroom,” said Patrick Phelan, a Rye resident.
Free bottled water is available daily for 1,700 households and some businesses in Rye, dealing with a boil water order for two full weeks now.
“Sorry, we have no coffee, no ice — that type of thing,” said Sylvia Cheever, with the Hungry Lobster.
“It’s not that bad. I have three kettles on the stove and we’ve gotten the water from the town, which is great,” Rye resident Claire Russo said.
An alert went out Oct. 12 after routine testing revealed a small amount of E. coli in the drinking water system that serves three-quarters of the town.
The Rye Water District said it was isolated to one area. They’ve cleaned it, chlorinated it, routinely inspected it and even had a dive team check a 100-foot tank.
“We don’t know right now what the problem is,” said Art Ditto, with the Rye Water District.
Ditto said they are working with the Department of Environmental Services.
“The residents are frustrated, they’d like to see something sooner,” said Phil Winslow, member of the Rye Select Board. “They think it’s a quick fix, it just isn’t.”
Locals are getting daily updates.
“I think the best part is they let us know what’s going on and how and what they’re doing to try to resolve this,” Cheever said.
“It makes you realize how fortunate we are to have it without thinking about it,” Phelan said. “You just turn on the tap and you have clean drinking water, so I think it’s a bit of a wake-up call for everybody.”
The hope is for clean test results in the next few days.
In the meantime, they ask residents to make sure their homes are properly plumbed, and that irrigation systems have proper backflow preventions, but they say even once the boil order is over, they may never know the cause.
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