This happens all over the US all the time. It's not always found out or reported on unless it's real big like in this instance. Minus an epidemic of people getting sick or actual toilet paper coming out of your tub faucet, do you really think the water authorities will let you know about their screwups?
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"Glendive tap water safe to drink"
GLENDIVE - Glendive residents had their tap water restored Friday morning after it was contaminated by oil for nearly a week.
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality gave the all-clear for Glendive's municipal drinking water supply.
The DEQ confirmed on Friday that the water now meets standards set by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
The Poplar Pipeline oil spill on Saturday contaminated the water with Benzene, a known carcinogen, and chemical treatment had to be performed at the plant to ensure that chemical was below the federal requirement.
Before consuming tap water, residents are instructed to flush the system by running the taps for about 15 minutes each.
"The primary concern has been restoring Glendive's drinking water supply to meet safe drinking water standards," said DEQ Director Tom Livers. "The response team has been working hard to restore water and help the community get its water back."
The DEQ website provided further instruction on the flushing process.
Information on flushing the pipes in homes is being distributed around town at various locations. Instructions are online at www.poplarresponse.com and on the EPA and DEQ websites.
GLENDIVE - Glendive residents can raise their glass to the news that clean tap water should be restored on Friday after nearly a week without clean drinking water.
A public information officer on scene said that a field test of the water at the treatment plant is now "decontaminated."
Samples of the water show that all of the elevated levels of contaminates in the water found earlier in the week are now below the federal clean water standard.
But before the water can be restored to residents it must be certified by the state.
The certification process takes about 18 hours and that process began Wednesday morning.
Once the water is "certified" clean by the state, the next step is to flush the system.
Once officials give the go-ahead, residents are asked to turn on all the taps in their home and allow them to run for about 15 minutes.
This will flush the contaminated water from the system.
The Department of Environmental Quality published information on its website on how to properly flush the system.
To flush the system, the DEQ states that all faucets must be turned on at the same time.
Cold water taps should be run for 20 minutes and then shut off. The hot water taps should be run for 15 minutes after the cold taps have run.
A strong odor will likely be present and venting is recommended.
A town meeting held Thursday night explained how appliances like the dishwasher, washer and dryer, and coffee makers should be cleaned.
The meeting was held at Glendive High school at 7 p.m.
http://www.ktvq.com/news/deq-glendive-tap-water-safe-to-drink/
