Boil water advisory in Blackfoot

BLACKFOOT, Idaho (KIFI) - The City of Blackfoot issued a boil order for its drinking water on Thursday.

During routine inspections, the Water Department sampled five different water sources in the city. One of the samples from the southeast side of Blackfoot came back positive for E. coli.

The city is urging everyone to boil any water used for drinking or cleaning purposes.

Water Superintendent Princton Lee says the city is doing a comprehensive assessment of their water system to identify and correct any causes of the contamination.

"We’ve been flushing the system trying to move some water around," Lee said. "We also started introducing chlorine to the system."

Lee says the flushing out process may take time.

"It takes time for the chlorine to get into the system," Lee said. "It takes time for the chlorine to do its job once it's in the system."

Lee says he is hopeful by the city will be able to lift the boil order between on Nov. 3.

"We're pretty optimistic that we can start taking our check samples on Monday to make sure that the chlorine is where it needs to be and that it's done its job," Lee said.

For more information, please contact the Blackfoot Water Dept. at (208) 785-8608. Their hours are Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m. until noon.