HUNTINGTON BEACH : Official Affirms Safety of City Water Supply
The city wants to send a message to residents: Do drink the water.
National agencies recently reported that cryptosporidium, a parasite that can cause severe sickness and even death, had been found within municipal water systems nationwide.
Jeff Renna, Huntington Beach water operations manager, said that his department received a number of calls from residents who had read or heard about cryptosporidium in other cities.
Huntington Beach’s water, he said, carries no health risks: “Our water is perfectly safe.”
Renna said that all of the city’s wells are properly constructed and that the water system has never been contaminated.
Renna said that 70% of the city’s water comes from wells. The rest is bought through the Metropolitan Water District, where testing for the parasite is done routinely, he said.
The largest outbreak traced to cryptosporidium was in Milwaukee in 1993, when more than 400,000 people became ill. In the past decade, outbreaks related to cryptosporidium have been reported in several states.
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