Water District Gets the Drop on Killer Parasite

Did you catch the NBC movie Sunday night about the potentially lethal parasite that tainted a town’s water supply?

Me neither.

I probably should have, though, because I’m leery of my tap water. Some would say mine is an abnormal fear, but all I can say is that when the faucet drips onto a dishrag, the rag turns brown. I was no chem whiz, but I don’t recall that being one of water’s qualities.

NBC touted the story line in “Thirst” as depicting a “public health hazard that leaves citizens a drop away from total destruction.”

That’s exactly the kind of talk that Ron Wildermuth can’t stand. As a spokesman for the Orange County Water District, Wildermuth’s job is to assure customers that, when they take a drink of water, they will live to tell about it.

So, Wildermuth launched a preemptive strike the day before “Thirst” aired. The release said Orange County’s water does not--repeat not--contain deadly parasites. “Current filtering processes prevent any parasitic life forms from entering Orange County’s drinking water,” he wrote.

My initial thought was that Wildermuth has too much time on his hands.

Later, it dawned on me we’re nearing the 60th anniversary of Orson Welles’ Halloween radio broadcast of “The War of the Worlds,” in which he told listeners that Martians had invaded New Jersey.

People panicked, especially in New Jersey. Clearly, we could have used someone like Wildermuth in 1938: “Martians Are Not Attacking New Jersey, and If They Do They’ll Be Sorry,” his press release might have said.

NBC spokeswoman Rebecca Marks said she wasn’t aware of any other water district in the country reacting as Orange County did.

“It was a fictional account, it was entertainment,” she said of the movie. “It was rooted in some fact, and I think it probably played into some people’s fear about their drinking water. I have them, and I’m a logical, intelligent human being, but because we don’t know about the filtering process, we all kind of get the heebie-jeebies over where our water is coming from and whether it’s clean and safe.”

Not to worry, Wildermuth said.

“It was a pretty preposterous scenario in the movie,” he said. “I saw it. We were just cutting it off at the pass [with the release], in case there was some kind of TV piece afterward, which I’ve seen so many times, like, ‘Is Orange County’s water safe?’ ”

The county gets its water from ground water sources and imports from the Metropolitan Water District. When I asked if the movie had any plausibility, Wildermuth said, “I don’t think so. With the system we have in Orange County, it’s just not going to happen.”

Confident his release did the trick, Wildermuth noted, “We did not get any calls, by the way.”

His review of the movie: “It would be kind of neat if you didn’t know anything about water, but when you know something about water, you start picking it apart.”

The movie scored in one regard, he said: “All our water engineers were ecstatic that the movie actually highlighted them, for a change.”

It turns out, however, the plot wasn’t as far-fetched as Wildermuth suggests. A parasite got into the Milwaukee water system in 1993 and made more than 400,000 people sick, according to newspaper accounts. A Milwaukee city health official said as many as 100 deaths might have been attributable to the contamination.

Just last summer in Sydney, Australia, residents emptied store shelves of bottled water because of a reported contamination.

Closer to home, the Metropolitan Water District received a patent this year to test for the contaminant mentioned in “Thirst.”

In general, however, Marks concurred with Wildermuth’s reassuring tone.

The tone of “Thirst,” she said, was reminiscent of “Asteroid,” the two-part drama NBC aired in February 1997. That movie was a “fun thriller with a tinge of reality” that was just real enough to worry people, Marks said.

Apparently, NBC doesn’t care if we’re all paranoid.

I asked Marks if the network is through scaring us.

No, she said, there’s a miniseries in production called “Atomic Train.” Look for it next spring.

That one, Marks said, “is in the vein of a runaway train, it’s carrying nuclear weapons, and it’s coming our way.”

Mr. Wildermuth and the citizens of Orange County, do not panic.

Let me say to you as calmly as possible:

Run for your lives.

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com