Tulsa World: Wells near Locust Grove test positive for E. coli

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Wells near Locust Grove test positive for E. coli

By BARBARA HOBEROCK World Staff Writer
Published: 2/25/2009 11:44 AM
Last Modified: 2/25/2009 7:06 PM

OKLAHOMA CITY — Seventeen of 74 private wells tested in the Locust Grove area were positive for E. coli bacteria, the Department of Environmental Quality said Wednesday.

Earlier this month, Attorney General Drew Edmondson said it was highly likely that poultry litter was the cause of an E. coli outbreak in August that was traced to the Country Cottage restaurant in Locust Grove. The outbreak left one dead and more than 300 ill.

Edmondson is suing 12 poultry companies in federal court alleging that the spreading of chicken litter as fertilizer has polluted the Illinois River watershed.

Based on the information from Edmondson’s office regarding the alleged source of the outbreak, the DEQ last week sampled private wells for total coliform and E. coli bacteria.

“We are pleased the Department of Environmental Quality and the Oklahoma State Department of Health took this action,” Edmondson said Wednesday. “While it’s premature to draw conclusions as to the source of the contamination from these particular tests, it is imperative that public health precautions be taken.”

Fifty-nine of the 74 wells tested positive for total coliform bacteria and 17 of the 59 were positive for E. coli, according to the DEQ.

“Total coliform are a group of bacteria that are indictors of environmental pollution,” according to a DEQ news release. “In that group are E. coli, which is usually associated with human or animal waste.”

“Anytime a test is done on a well for E. coli, the number should come back as zero,” said Charlie Price, an Edmondson spokesman. “It is always a concern when any E. coli is found in a well.”

The testing didn’t link the bacteria in the wells to poultry, said Gary Mickelson, a spokesman for Tyson Foods, one of the companies that Edmondson has sued.

“In fact, DEQ officials today confirmed their tests are not designed to show the source of the pollution,” Mickelson said. “Bacteria can come from a variety of sources. The state’s testing does not identify any link between poultry and the Locust Grove outbreak.”

“Scientific literature demonstrates that the type of bacteria that caused the Locust Grove outbreak is primarily associated with cattle and not poultry,” Mickelson said.

The Oklahoma State Department of Health is conducting further tests on wells that were positive for total coliform and E. coli to try to identify specific bacteria that may cause disease, according to the DEQ.

The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry sent two teams to study agricultural activities at the locations where the water wells tested positive for E. coli, according to the DEQ.

“This approach will most accurately identify any possible agricultural sources of contamination so that steps can be taken to remediate the problem and prevent problems in the future,” according to the DEQ.

Poultry houses engaged in land application of waste were within a quarter of a mile of Country Cottage, Edmondson said.

By BARBARA HOBEROCK World Staff Writer

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	Report Comment Popeye, T-Town (2/25/2009 11:56:15 AM) ""Additionally, state health officials are examining the samples to discover what strains of E. coli were collected. Last year's outbreak became the largest in the nation's history for the rare E. coli strain O111."" This would seem to be the smoking gun, if found.
	Report Comment Whirled Peas, (2/25/2009 12:09:26 PM) E. Coli is very common and has many varieties, but did they actually find the fatal O111 strain? That would be the smoking gun. Im as upset as anyone about what chicken farms have done to our water supply, but this case needs to rest on more than half-truths.
	Report Comment Frites and Mayo, Tulsa (2/25/2009 12:34:00 PM) This is not surprising.
	Report Comment Jason L., Tulsa (2/25/2009 12:47:18 PM) Having seen and smelled chicken waste spread on pasture it defies logic to ask for more proof that chicken waste is impacting the environment. It is like seeing holes in the hand of a crucified man and asking for video of the actual crucifixion to believe that the holes are actually there. It is like asking for new photos of the Holocaust because the old ones are not "up to date" and therefore are suspect. If the poultry industry truly believes they are not affecting the environment, then I challenge them to ship all the waste outside of the watershed and joint state/industry tests conducted at the beginning of a year and at the end of the year for two years. If the watershed exhibits the same behavior at the end of the moratorium then by all means go back to the old ways. If not, then stay out of the watershed! I like my canoeing in a clean, nice river. There is only so much water in the 'shed and it does not take much to mess it up.
	Report Comment Lawrence, Tulsa (2/25/2009 12:56:49 PM) Like I've always said...this restaurant is being used as a scapegoat because these people can't find out the real source of the outbreak.
	Report Comment my view, Sand Springs (2/25/2009 1:26:21 PM) The chicken industry is full of poop, theyr'e destroying the watershed.
	Report Comment Fred, Tulsa (2/25/2009 1:33:10 PM) Amen Jason, The sad part of this perfect storm is that the soil in the areas around the chicken houses where the poultry litter is being spread is Very Poor soil.These land owners are between a rock and a hard place, and spreading the poop is the Only way they can kind of raise crops. In the process they foul the watershed. I am a duffer running in, but when I was in my teens, I was one of the first people in the state with Scuba equipment. I am not lying, but I could slip underwater on one side of the Illinois River and I could easily spot fish swimming on the other side of the river through water that was as clear as glass. Something bad has happened here in the form of Chicken Litter unregulated and uncontrolled.
	Report Comment jrbinstl, Saint Louis (2/25/2009 2:24:14 PM) It's still the Country Cottages fault for using well water. No restaurant should use well water. What century is this?
	Report Comment HAHAHAHA, (2/25/2009 2:53:12 PM) "What century is this?" This is the 21st century. You are welcome.
	Report Comment dwhitney, Tulsa (2/25/2009 3:27:41 PM) I'm as guilty as anyone else because I eat chicken but the Poultry farmers have ruined parts of NE Oklahoma. I remember in the 60's & 70's you could snorkle in the Illinois river and and see everything. Last summer I took a mask in and couldn't see 2 feet. Some day when man is finally wiped off this earth nature will start reparing what we destroy.
	Report Comment dwhitney, Tulsa (2/25/2009 3:31:29 PM) Fred knows how beautiful the Illinois and Spring Creek were. It's almost mind blowing when I think about it. I'm just glad that I'm old enough to remember how wonderful it was.
	Report Comment love 918, (2/25/2009 4:40:02 PM) The attorney general has you right where he wants you...believing that poultry are solely responsible for water quality issues. Whirled peas made a good comment. The City of Tulsa settled with the poultry companies when the poultry companies were shown to only be responsible for 42% of the pollution in Eucha/Spavinaw. After seeing the booming growth in Fayetteville and the rest of NW Arkansas, I would find it hard to believe that the poultry industry is responsible for even 40% of the pollution in the Illinois River. They are guilty of some pollution, but not all of it and certainly they had little to nothing to do with the Locust Grove outbreak.
	Report Comment seymore1965, Tulsa (2/25/2009 5:20:17 PM) I knew Drew Edmondson was right about the chicken waste. I saw his movie about it.
	Report Comment water watcher, (2/25/2009 5:24:23 PM) Interesting article. Last year Oklahoma's Water Resouces Board published a statewide beneficial use study of Oklahoma's streams and rivers that showed high bacteria levels are everywhere in Oklahoma waters. It is reasonable to assume that if you took 57 private water wells anywhere in Oklahoma and sampled them you would get results very similar to those in Mayes County. The lack of sampling a control group of wells from another area of the state shows this was nothing more than political gamesmanship by Edmondson and his pet lawyers. A freshman high school chemistry student knows every sampling effort needs a control sample for comparison. Edmondson is evidently giving up on his lawsuit and using the water issue to get as much free press as possible for his run for governor.
	Report Comment Fred, Tulsa (2/25/2009 5:42:41 PM) If you put many of these houses on a sewer line, their wells would dry up. Ecoli are more common than you might think in water and food. We would test one Arby's in our Biology class and were surprised that the Jamoca Shake has trace of E. coli whenever we tested it. However we found it in many more areas than you would believe. Duh. I think that The Country Cottage got a raw deal. I think that the fellow who died of the infection from E. colt 0111 brought the disease with him and handled implements at the buffet with hands that were contaminated. It doesn't take very many of that strain of E. coli to make someone sick. I may be all wet here and it wouldn't be the first time, but this follows a pattern that seems very logical. E. coli 0111 didn't come from their well.
	Report Comment phantom74016, chelsea (2/25/2009 6:14:22 PM) well all be the state railroaded a fine resturant out only to findout maybe it was the water in the area WOW only to hear them say they were at risk because of a health code violation in the past OMG but will the state have big enough balls to say they were wrong "oh this isn't fantasy land"
	Report Comment Bullhead, Nicut (2/25/2009 9:41:42 PM) You can bet your bottom dollar, phantom, that no one who trashed the Cottage will say they are sorry. Shame on them.
	Report Comment Ron B, (2/25/2009 11:05:14 PM) Maybe we could open a plant to make bottled water and market it in...let's say Washington, DC.
	Report Comment T.B'Ville, Bartlesville (2/26/2009 12:36:26 AM) Very good point Fred.
	Report Comment Daniel Day Simpson, Edmond (2/26/2009 7:00:16 AM) The way the DEQ does the testing they will NEVER tell you that your water is free of E. coli. An organization I used to be involved with for the past 30 years always got back results that read, "Less than 100 colonies" as the lowest level they would rate the facility. We could send in pure Cholorox or turpentine and they would still return "Less than 100 colonies" on the test results. The DEQ is also anal retentive on how it does the tests. The U.S. Post office is supposed to guarantee the delivery of water samples to teh DEQ within the 48 hour envelope. It rarely happens though. The post office somehow knows its a water sample in the Express Mail envelope and they will keep it for 47:45 hours and deliver it 1 minute late to the lab. Of course, per law, the lab rejects it as expired. So they send a tersely worded letter demanding a second sample whereby the same thing happens again. Small water treatment facilities soon learn its better to send the samples with someone who is visiting OKC. It used to not be so difficult back in the days. That was when Bubba would show up every month to take samples from random places on the facility. Of course our water was much better back then I always thought we should have opened up a bottled water company. The water were were making tasted good. We batch processed it in a very old school system. It was labor intensive just to get 5000 gallons at a time. We mixed alum with the lake water and let it sit for a few hours. Then we sucked the clear water off the top of the settling tank. As that happened, we chlorinated, added soda ash and a trace of lime for flavor. Then it went through a sand filter and right to the tower. One thing people often said was that their shampoo and soap worked so much better at our facility. You would wash your hair with our water and it would feel like a baby's hair. Your hair was like fresh silk with our water. I honestly cannot tell you why but it was due to the particular mineral content or the overall softness of the water. I think it was the lime that made the difference. I think lime is a good water softener.
	Report Comment WindRider, Heavener (2/26/2009 2:01:57 PM) There is not a clear stream or lake left in E. Oklahoma and yes chicken litter is the culprit, all the state people know it and no one wants to act, are Tyson and OK Foods that strong???
	Report Comment BioShield, (2/27/2009 9:43:43 AM) There is a system on the market that will kill the bacteria in well water. Do not use a chlorinator or pour bleach down the well - the trihalomethanes from this will give you cancer!

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