E. coli Continues To Keep Aberdeen Under A Boil Water Notice

ABERDEEN, Miss. (WCBI) – A positive test for E. coli in the Aberdeen water supply, prompts a boil water notice and a run on bottled water.

Aberdeen Water Department crews spent the day collecting new samples, but residents still have a few more days of uncertainty.

It’s a case of “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.”

The boil water notice notice went into effect in Aberdeen on Saturday.

Now, over 5,000 people are trying to find enough water for their daily needs.

When you walk in Subway in Aberdeen, you’ll see this sign on the drink machine and gallons of water stored behind the counter.

“We have dishes piled on top of dishes. We can’t use the water for dishes, so it’s hard making things hard,” says shift manager, Kisha Hubbard.

“E. coli present at well number seven and we shut it down and it’s off-line right now, so there’s no more contaminated water coming into the system,” says Aberdeen Water Department Supervisor, Jason Roberson.

But that doesn’t mean the water is safe to drink or use, just yet.

“As of right now, I have to re-sample. I have to pull 17 samples and send them back in and see if everything is clear enough to lift the boil water notice.”

Until then about 5,500 people-Families, businesses, and schools are having to boil their water or buy bottled water.

“We went to Food Giant and they are out of water. We went to Dollar General, out of water. Went to Family Dollar, out of water. Went to Fred’s, out of water, but Piggly Wiggly had water, so we’ve been buying gallons and gallons and gallons of water.”

Aberdeen School District Superintendent Jeff Clay says the district’s operation manager went to Sam’s in Tupelo early Monday morning, to stock up on water bottles for students and staff.

“It’s always an inconvenience not having the water, so what we’ve done, we’ve purchased 3,600 bottles of water, so we want to make sure that all of our students have at least one bottle of water a day for the next three days, while the boil water notice is in effect.”

“If all of the water sample results come back good, Thursday everything will be lifted and everything will be back to normal.”

The city of Aberdeen has 11 wells, and as Roberson mentioned, only water from Well 7 tested positive for E.coli bacteria.