Rye, New Hampshire, Water District Boil Water Order Remains Indefinitely

A week after it went into place, Rye Water District customers will be under a boil water order for at least a few more days.

E.coli bacteria was initially founded in samples taken at the Breakfast Hill tank and two other locations, 1257 Washington Road and 235 Parsons Road, on Wednesday. A boil water order was put into effect immediately.

Until the order is lifted, pre-boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, brushing teeth, washing vegetables, food preparation, washing dishes, making infant formula, washing small children, and making ice until further notice. Water should be brought to a boil for at least one minute.

All samples need to come back free of bacteria for two days in a row in order for the order to be lifted, something which has proven difficult to achieve. Samples taken Sunday showed:

• Grove Road site negative for both e-coli and coliform.
• West Road was positive for coliform and negative for e-coli.
• Lafayette Rd positive for coliform and negative for e-coli.
• Parsons Rd postive for coliform and negative for e-coli.
• Washington Rd postive for both coliform and e-coli.

In a statement Wednesday the district said that more samples will not be taken until system wide chlorination is completed. It has already started at the Garland station, and will take several days to complete. New samples will then be taken and sent to a lab.

The district said it still doesn't know the source of the contamination.

Customers of Portsmouth Water and Aquarion Water in Rye are not affected by the order.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNH