CEDAR CITY — Cedar City officials on Friday ended a boil order for culinary water users who live in the southeast portion of the city, after two successive days of tests showed negative results for E. coli contamination.
As previously reported in Cedar City News, the boil order was issued Wednesday after a sample taken Monday within the affected area tested positive. The affected area was east of Main Street between 200 South and Shurtz Canyon Drive, excluding businesses and residents whose properties front Main Street itself.
City crews initially flushed the system and added more chlorine Wednesday, after which they took test samples of the water at multiple locations.
City Water Superintendent Robbie Mitchell, who provided an update to city officials during Wednesday night’s City Council meeting, said that state regulations require two straight days of 100% negative test results in order to be declared cleared for normal culinary water service and for the boil order to be lifted.
The first set of results came back Thursday and were negative, with Friday afternoon’s results showing the same, Mitchell told Cedar City News.
Mitchell said he and other officials aren’t sure of the reason for the initial positive test earlier in the week but added that there have not been any cases of illness reported.
At the council meeting on Wednesday, Cedar City Mayor Maile Wilson-Edwards encouraged all Iron County residents to sign up for the county’s emergency alert system, which helps officials get the word out much faster and more effectively in such situations. Visit the citizen alert system page on the county’s website for more details.
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