State Issues Water Warning in Rosemead Area

State health officials have advised 2,500 residents of a Rosemead area served by a small private water company that the water has a high bacteria level and should be boiled for five minutes before drinking.

Fahd Rizk, a state Department of Health Services sanitary engineer, said bacterial contamination has forced the Amarillo Mutual Water Co. to shut down one of its two wells, flush out the system and for the first time begin chlorinating its water supply. The cause of the contamination has not been determined.

Meanwhile, he said, residents should not use the water for drinking, washing food or cooking until tests show that purity has been restored. The advice to boil water will remain in effect at least until the weekend.

Evelyn Ramirez, secretary-manager of the water company, which is owned by property owners in the area it serves, said the company’s wells had produced such high-quality water that no treatment was required until this week.

“We’ve never had to add chlorine to the water,” she said. “We’ve never had any problem, and we’ve been in business since 1920.”

The problem was spotted Monday during a routine twice-monthly test of the water system. Retesting Tuesday confirmed that bacteria had contaminated the water supply. Further tests are being undertaken to determine the type of bacteria involved.

Rizk said the health danger will not be known until the bacteria has been identified. Some area residents complained Thursday of headaches and stomach problems, but it is not clear if the water supply can be blamed, he said.

Ramirez said she began calling customers to alert them to the problem as soon as the water testing laboratory notified the company Wednesday of bacterial contamination. Her son, John Cain, and his wife, Helen, drove through the neighborhood with a loudspeaker to warn residents.

Cain said his wife speaks Cantonese and Mandarin and they broadcast the warning to the area’s large Asian population in those languages, as well as in English.

George Serna, a 30-year-old truck driver, said he became ill Tuesday.

“I had a headache and a bad case of diarrhea,” he said. In addition, “my father, sister and next-door neighbor got sick.”

But other residents said they had been drinking the water without ill effects. One woman, whose 15-year-old daughter was ill, said she was inclined to blame “a virus that has been going around” rather than the water supply, noting that other members of the family drank the water without becoming sick.

Amarillo Mutual Water Co. serves a 700-acre area from the San Bernardino Freeway south to Garvey Avenue, between Ivar and Willard avenues. Most of the city’s 46,000 residents are served by other water companies.