With a vat of water boiling on the stove and a supply of already boiled water in the cooler, Nick Giannakaris hopes he has Aurora’s precautionary boil order licked.
But don’t ask him for soda pop or a glass of water with your meal. The soft-drink dispensers at Nikarry’s restaurant on Lake Street in Aurora have been shut off, and the water is rationed.
“We’ve got juice, milk or coffee,” said Giannakaris, pointing to a dining room full of customers, most with cups of coffee on their tables. “It’s a big mess, the things you have to do.”
On Monday, the City of Aurora continued its precautionary boil order, first issued Friday after officials discovered that the city’s water supply was contaminated with E. coli bacteria.
Results from tests taken Sunday showed that total coliform bacteria, a non-harmful bacteria, still are present in the city’s system, and the ban has been continued until at least mid-week, said city spokesman Bill Catching. The presence of total coliform bacteria, however, could indicate that other, harmful forms of bacteria are present.
More tests have been taken, and results will be released Tuesday, he said. The city will maintain a precautionary boil order until no contamination is found for two consecutive days, officials said.
No one has gotten sick from the contamination, hospital officials said.
City officials had theorized over the weekend that the problem was coming from one of the city’s three reservoirs, which hold the water supply after it goes through the treatment plant and before it is pumped into homes.
But one positive sample of 33 taken Sunday actually came from the city’s treatment plant, Catching said. Officials are hoping the contaminated sample was a “false positive,” as other samples taken at the site an hour earlier were clear.
“An hour earlier it was fine, which goes to our theory that the reservoir was bad,” Catching said. “Now that we have this one, that froze that theory in doubt.”
While two of the city’s reservoirs were built in recent years, a third underground reservoir is 69 years old and was scheduled to be replaced later this year, Catching said.
Divers over the weekend found cracks in that reservoir, Catching said. Officials think that feces from the geese that loiter above ground may have seeped into the reservoir, contaminating it, he said. The city shut off that reservoir Saturday, added more chlorine to fight the bacteria and began flushing out the contaminated water. The reservoir will remain closed until the problem is fixed, he said.
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The boil order was the first for Aurora and the most widespread order in Illinois that officials can recall, said Fred Carlson, director of environmental health for the Kane County Health Department.
While breaks in the lines that serve homes are not uncommon in winter, they typically affect a neighborhood or small number of households, he said.
The city notified about half of the 45,000 households that tap into the water system about the boil order using the city’s automated telephone notification system, Catching said. Residents with unlisted numbers or call-blocking capabilities were unable to be notified by phone, Catching said.
Officials advised residents to boil any water used for consumption or washing dishes or in food preparation for at least 5 minutes before using it. Many have turned to stocking up on bottled water.
“We’ve been boiling water since Friday, so we decided to buy this,” said Raziel Rodriguez, 18, who was buying six gallons of water at a Walgreens in Aurora. “For now it’s OK, but I don’t know how long we’re going to have to keep doing this.”
About a third to half of the city’s restaurants closed their doors over the weekend rather than deal with the boil order, but most reopened Monday with water-boiling plans in place.
At Rush-Copley Medical Center, officials put up signs in English and Spanish at water fountains and ice machines to alert people of the boil order, said John Diederich, vice president of ancillary operations for the hospital. Patients are being given bottled water to drink, and the hospital has switched to disposable utensils, he said.
Schools stayed open, but those that tap into the city’s system have shut off water fountains and some have provided bottled water to students and faculty.
At East Aurora High School, waterless hand sanitizer was placed in the school’s bathrooms and cafeteria, which switched to disposable trays until the ban is lifted. Notices were sent home with students to inform parents about the ban.
District 131 officials want to “make sure that once our students leave us, they’re still safe, using a safe mode when they get home,” said Marion Gonzalez, freshman class principal at the high school. “I’m just hoping this thing is through soon so we can go back to a regular day.”