New Inside-the-Beltway Issue: No Drinking Water

While health officials continued testing the water supply Thursday in search of contaminants, residents here and in neighboring Virginia--an area often preoccupied with weighty domestic and international problems--sought to cope with a far more basic one: a lack of drinkable water from their taps.

It appeared that they would have an opportunity to enhance those skills. Health officials said the area was not likely to have potable drinking water for at least several days.

There was no evidence yet that parasites, which can cause intestinal problems for otherwise healthy people and potentially more serious problems among the elderly and those with weakened immune systems, had found their way into the water supply--a concern that led to Wednesday’s alert.

The Environmental Protection Agency recommended that all drinking and cooking water in Washington and nearby Virginia suburbs be boiled for at least one minute before use, to rid it of possible parasites.

The alert was issued when tests at a plant that supplies water to about 1 million people detected higher than normal levels of solids--a condition know as turbidity. The situation can indicate the presence of parasites that can cause intestinal illness and other symptoms in humans. No outbreaks of illness were reported Thursday, and federal officials said new water tests showed that turbidity levels had dropped below normal.

They cautioned, however, that the tests for contaminants were continuing. If tests continue to be satisfactory, the ban may be lifted as early as Sunday, said Stuart Kerzner, chief of the drinking water program for EPA Region 3.

Officials said the problem likely was caused by heavy rains earlier this week that washed unusually high amounts of silt and pollution into the Potomac River--the source of water for much of the region, subsequently overloading filtration plants.

Predictably, bottled water was moving off store shelves as fast as it arrived Thursday, as residents, office managers, restaurant owners and hoteliers across the city stocked up on supplies.

In local public schools, children took bottled water or juice to school, and the water emergency was incorporated into some students’ lesson plans, district spokeswoman Karen Hinton said. School water fountains either were turned off or covered, she said, and there were no reports of illness among children.

At the Mayflower Hotel on Connecticut Avenue, guests appeared happy with management’s handling of the crisis. After issuing warnings, hotel manager John D. Williams said that he and his staff offered any takers a glass of Champagne instead and placed a bottle of water in every room.

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At popular Duke Ziebert’s restaurant, members of Washington’s power elite were well cared for. Randy Ziebert, catering Thursday to the likes of actor Robert Duvall and Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke, ordered extra jugs of spring water.

At the 17th Street McDonald’s, the one favored by President Clinton, a sign reassured customers that the fast-food chain “will be serving canned beverages for several days.”

The White House was spared because it has its own water filtration system, but workers at the Old Executive Office Building next door--where the vice president and other high-level officials have offices--were not so lucky. Like others in the city, they were forced to rely on juice machines or bottled water.