Water district lifts Tumalo boil-water notice

The Deschutes County Health Department gave the Laidlaw Water District in Tumalo the all-clear Tuesday to lift a boil-water notice and for customers resume using the water.

The district issued the notice on Sept. 21 after routine tests found E. coli in the water. That meant the water district’s 130 customers, including several businesses and Tumalo Community School, had to use bottled water for various purposes.

The water district said it still has no idea what caused the contamination for the second time in recent months.

Officials said one solution could be to chemically treat the water on a constant basis, rather than just after contamination is found.