Water Company Seeks to Allay Safety Fears

A spokesman for the California-American Water Co. said Friday that there has never been any indication that a waterborne microbe that can cause flu-like symptoms is present anywhere in the company’s water supply, despite warnings sent to customers in Newbury Park and elsewhere in Thousand Oaks that the organism could be in their water.

The company’s statement comes as officials with the Thousand Oaks-based Calleguas Municipal Water District set out to assure customers that their water supply is completely safe.

“We do thousands of water-monitoring tests and water-treatment tests, and we have never detected the presence [of the microbe] in the water supply,” said Donald Kendall, general manager for Calleguas, which supplies water to 80% of the population in Ventura County through wholesalers such as California-American.

“One hundred percent of our water is treated at the highest federal and state standards,” Kendall said. “We’ve got the safest water supply in the nation, we feel, right here in Ventura County.”

California-American is sending out notices to 10 million of its customers in 23 states--including more than 63,000 in the western Thousand Oaks area--about the slim possibility that a microbe could be in the water supply.

The organism, known as cryptosporidiosis, can cause flu-like symptoms including fever, vomiting and diarrhea.

Even though the organism has never been found in the company’s water supply, the warning is meant to advise “at-risk” customers--those with compromised immune systems or are undergoing chemotherapy or radiation treatment for cancer--that the microbe could be found in virtually any water source.

In the advisories, California-American explains how those customers can protect themselves by boiling or filtering drinking water.

“We just felt it was the responsible thing to do,” said Kevin Tilden, spokesman for California-American.

Kendall said he supports that effort but wants to make sure that the message is delivered in a way that doesn’t cause alarm.

“I’m always supportive of giving the public as much information as they want,” Kendall said. “But I’d also like to ensure that this isn’t construed by the public that there is something wrong with their water.”