A boil water advisory has been issued to 25,000 customers of the Kent County Water Authority after tests Friday found that a storage tank was contaminated with E. Coli bacteria.
Water authority customers in Cranston, Coventry, Warwick, West Warwick, East Greenwich and some in North Kingstown and West Greenwich, should boil their water vigorously for at least one minute before drinking or cooking with it, the authority's general manager and chief engineer, Timothy J. Brown, said.
Customers also are advised not to bath infants and young children in the water, Brown said, because they may accidentally swallow some.
Samples taken from a storage tank Friday were tested and the results came back to the water authority Sunday at around 9:30 a.m., showing the tank was contaminated, Brown said. The tank was immediately taken offline, he said, and the authority notified state health officials.
Brown said the water authority notified customers "well ahead of" the 24 hour period required by law. He said customers were alerted to the boil-water advisory through news media outlets.
The boil-water advisory is expected to last about 3 or 4 days, Brown said, while water authority staff test and re-test the water to ensure that it is clean. State health officials will then have to certify it is safe for drinking prior to lifting the boil-water advisory, he said.
"We hope by Wednesday or Thursday we'll be clean, Brown said,the authority can request the state health department to certify it's safe.
The Brookfield Plat in West Warwick and the Oaklawn section of Cranston, Brown said, are unaffected by the contamination and are not included in the boil-water advisory.
The boil-water advisory is in effect for customers in the following locations:
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