Illegal Tapping May Have Tainted Water, Officials Say

A former homeowner who rigged a piping system to steal recycled waste water to irrigate his own backyard may be responsible for contaminating the drinking water supply serving as many as 1,600 homes and two schools, officials said Friday.

Officials investigating the contamination that raised fears in this hillside community are still uncertain how many homes or businesses received the tainted water.

Aside from complaints by two local high school students, no health problems have been reported.

“It could be 1,600 homes. It could be two,” said Arlene Post, a spokeswoman for the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District. “We don’t know what the extent was. We believe it was minimal, but we’re taking every precaution.”

State health officials on Friday had not yet given a clean bill of health to drinking water in the Mulwood area of the city.

Water district officials believe the owner of a home on Bluebird Drive had illegally installed a pipe to tap into a public irrigation line that was using reclaimed sewage water on a nearby greenbelt, Post said.

The homeowner, who was not identified, has since moved, Post said.

The contamination was triggered when new owners moved into the house and an unsuspecting landscaper on Wednesday opened a valve on a bootleg pipe that diverted water from the public irrigation pipe to a potable water pipe in the home’s backyard.

Because the backyard sprinkler system was not operating at the time, the treated water flowed into the home’s drinking water system, which connects to the water system supplying 1,600 homes.

The water in the public irrigation pipe comes from the nearby Tapia sewage treatment plant, and is treated in three stages. It is considered safe to drink in small amounts.

As a precaution, residents of all 1,600 homes were warned Thursday not to drink their tap water until further notice.

Water district officials were still awaiting word from the California Department of Health Services before giving customers permission to resume drinking their tap water.

Ken August, a state health department spokesman in Sacramento, said an initial round of tests showed that no harmful bacteria were present in the drinking water supply as of Thursday morning.

He said results from a second set of samples, taken Friday morning, will be available today.

“Pending those results, we’ll know if the water is safe to drink,” he said.

On Thursday, water district representatives distributed notices warning residents not to drink or cook with their tap water. Calabasas High School and Chaparral Elementary School were also warned about the potential problem.

Two students at the high school complained they felt sick after drinking from fountains. But no other illnesses were reported, authorities said.