Tulsa World: DEQ issues well-water warnings

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DEQ issues well-water warnings

By SUSAN HYLTON World Staff Writer
Published: 10/29/2009 2:31 AM
Last Modified: 10/29/2009 5:44 AM

LOCUST GROVE — Private water-well users in the Locust Grove area should drink bottled water or hook up to a municipal or rural water system to ensure safe drinking water, according to findings released by state agencies Wednesday.

The Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry surveyed wells within a five-mile radius of Locust Grove after a deadly E. coli outbreak at the Country Cottage restaurant in August 2008.

DEQ records show that 341 restaurant patrons were sickened by E. coli 0111, a rare type. Seventy people were hospitalized, and many underwent dialysis. One man, Chad Ingle of Pryor, died.

Before the outbreak, the restaurant had begun using its private well when the public water supply was interrupted.

E. coli was found in some of the private water-well samples taken, but not the 0111 strain that sickened many. The 0111 strain wasn't found in the restaurant's well, either.

It isn't officially known how the E. coli 0111 was introduced to the restaurant.

But most of the 113 wells tested — 76 percent — were contaminated by bacteria.

It is an amount that the report indicates was "substantially higher than the rate that would be expected for sampling in rural areas."

After the wells were disinfected, 81 percent of them still tested positive for bacteria, the findings show.

To ensure that private-well users in the area have safe drinking water, the DEQ recommends one of the following:

Use bottled water for drinking, cooking and brushing teeth or boiled water for drinking and other activities that involve intentional or accidental ingestion.

Connect to a municipal or rural water supply where available.

Equip wells with a full-time filtration and chlorination system.

The two state agencies also identified potential sources of the bacteria in wells, including poorly constructed or maintained wells; a leaking septic system; and domestic and farm animals being near wells.

Of the wells tested, 55 percent were identified as having construction and/or maintenance issues, and 89 percent had either septic systems or domestic and farm animals nearby.

Susan Hylton 581-8381
susan.hylton@tulsaworld.com By SUSAN HYLTON World Staff Writer

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Some reader comments for this story were copied from "State: People with private wells in Locust Grove area should use bottled or boiled water," which was published on 10/28/2009.

	Report Comment WhoseLeft, Tulsa (10/28/2009 7:32:21 PM) Is this the water-shed problem from the wide-spread chicken litter from the Arkansas poultry industry? Contamination of wells?
	Report Comment FUTURE WORLD, Tulsa (10/29/2009 12:05:01 AM) If I lived in that area I'd be using bottle water for drinking too.
	Report Comment LEO, (10/29/2009 8:00:36 AM) think this information will ever reach the federal court lawsuit over chicken litter, or just be buried again and this is not just a problem coming from Arkansas. I would think someone would check what Oklahoma has.
	Report Comment love 918, (10/29/2009 8:40:40 AM) People use well water that is 100 feet away from their septic tank and then blame the contamination on poultry. Ignorance is bliss. And ignorance can get you a job at the attorney general's office.
	Report Comment Ed_C_in_OK, Tahlequah (10/29/2009 11:37:18 AM) For fifty years I have seen the wonderful quality of our water supply in NE OK be subtly polluted & almost no attention toward the problems or any solutions. It has always been common sense that you get your drinking water upstream from the outhouse…. But as NE OK & NW AR has become more densely populated & the growth of industries with inherent pollution, we are now experiencing exponential consequences damaging our water supplies. The pollution problem in Oklahoma waters may be irreversible if we have must endure another decade of republican deregulation & dereliction that is now controls Oklahoma politics. This is the same rational of catering to corporate greed, which almost destroyed America PEOPLE! Pollution is a problem where the role of government must be strengthened so that the agencies that police these issues have the authority to enforce the laws. With continued neglect, our beautiful streams and lakes will soon become so contaminated they will be unsafe for swimming or drinking. Wake up Oklahoma! Your children's children are going to be living in a cesspool of your nasty pollution because you were too apathetic, negligent & ignorant to demand your leaders enforce laws & responsibilities of cleaning up after ourselves. Drinking water, air & mother earth must be revered as the life blood of our existence; else we are but pigs driving cars! Dig this Oklahoma!!!…. Currently the DEQ doesn't have enough authority to stop a septic tank pumping company from dumping raw sewage onto rural property that runs off of their property onto yours. We need laws & enforcement agencies with the power to regulate the growing population of greedy pigs before Indian Country & Oklahoma becomes America’s favorite dump site!

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