City of Blackfoot boil advisory has been lifted
Published at | Updated at
BLACKFOOT— A boil advisory that’s been in place since last week in Blackfoot has now been lifted.
In a news release on Friday, city of Blackfoot officials wrote they had been authorized by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality to lift the boil order.
The boil order went into place last Friday. Water samples had shown positive results for coliform.
RELATED | Boil order issued for Blackfoot
Coliform is generally not harmful and usually comes from environmental sources in the soil. Coliforms are bacteria, some found naturally in the environment, and some found in fecal matter, which is classified as E. coli, a harmful type of coliform.
RELATED | Blackfoot mayor: ‘Boil advisory almost every six months is not acceptable to anybody’
Samples were further tested, and the results indicated the presence of E. coli.
According to a city spokesman, additional water samples were taken on the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th.
During this process, the city hired Mountain West Water Works, a company out of Rexburg, as a consultant to help the city troubleshoot and evaluate the water issue. On Thursday, the company assisted with taking water samples and observing the city of Blackfoot’s technicians as the samples were taken.
“We were told that the consultant did not identify any issues with our sampling process,” a news release from the city said.
Earlier this week, Mayor Marc Carroll wrote in a public memo on Facebook that this was the third boil advisory in 13 months. There were boil advisories on Oct. 28, 2021, April 21, and most recently last week.
Carroll said it was recommended to and accepted by City Council that the city of Blackfoot begins the engineering process to treat the water with automatic chlorination injection systems. The engineering is expected to be completed in December.