Important Information About Payson City’s Drinking Water

Our water system recently violated a drinking water standard.  We routinely monitor for the presence of drinking water contaminants. We took 20 samples for coliform bacteria during September 2014. Two of those samples showed the presence of coliform bacteria. Although this is not an emergency, as our customers, you have a right to know what happened, what you should do, and what we are doing to correct this situation.

As required we have taken additional samples and the tests results have come back negative for coliforms.

You do not need to boil your water or take other corrective actions. However, if you have specific health concerns, consult your doctor.

People with severely compromised immune systems, infants, and some elderly may be at increased risk. These people should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers. General guidelines on ways to lessen the risk of infection by microbes are available from EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1(800) 426-4791.

This is not an emergency. If it had been you would have been notified immediately. Total coliform bacteria are generally not harmful themselves. Coliforms are bacteria which are naturally present in the environment and are used as an indicator that other, potentially-harmful, bacteria may be present. Coliforms were found in more samples than allowed and this was a warning of potential problems.

Usually, coliforms are a sign that there could be a problem with the treatment or distribution system (pipes). Whenever we detect coliform bacteria in any sample, we do follow-up testing to see if other bacteria of greater concern, such as fecal coliform or E. coli, are present. We did not find any of these bacteria in our subsequent testing, and further testing shows that this problem has been resolved.   

For more information, please contact Payson City Water Department at 801-465-5278 or 439 W Utah Avenue, Payson UT  84651.

Please share this information with all the other people who drink this water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (for example, people in apartments, nursing homes, schools and businesses).  You can do this by posting this notice in a public place or distributing copies by hand or mail.