THERE WAS CONCERN AND CONFUSION in front of Harvest Market at Mendosa’s on Wednesday morning as residents tried to figure out the import of a “water quality alert” issued by the Mendocino County Public Health Department on Tuesday afternoon.
The alert said that the State Water Resources Control Board had issued “boil water” orders to three Mendocino businesses west of state Highway 1 and advised residents in the area to have their water tested.
A’Kesh Eidi, a program administrator with the Public Health Department, passed out water testing kits and instructions while at the same time seeking to calm residents concerned about the water. Residents west of Highway 1 are advised to take water samples to the county’s Public Health office in Fort Bragg, where they will be sent to Alpha Analytical Laboratories Inc. in Ukiah to test for E. coli and coliform bacteria. Residents do not need to boil their water, Eidi said.
It is not unusual to find E. coli and coliform in water that comes from shallow wells in town, especially during the winter months.
“It’s an ongoing issue because of the geology,” Eidi said, “but if you’re not getting sick, I wouldn’t be overly concerned. “
Although the county is recommending testing based on the state water board’s orders and providing the test kits, no public funding is available to cover the costs of the test itself, which, depending on whether a resident has ever had a sample run, range from $60-$95 per well.
Details about the reason for the state’s citations continue to be murky. Three restaurants in Mendocino – Café Beaujolais, Luna Trattoria, and Frankie’s – received the citations unexpectedly on Tuesday afternoon. County Supervisor Ted Williams said that the county has been scrambling to respond on short notice without sufficient information.
The state “is essentially telling you there’s a water problem but not telling you where,” Williams said.
Jaime Placido of JP Waterman, one of the state-licensed water operators who services the restaurants’ wells, said that the state’s orders came without notice and caused a “bunch of hysteria.”
“We’ve been testing the water every month and it’s been clean,” said Donna Feiner of Feiner Fixings, which services the well at Frankie’s.
Nevertheless, 15,000 gallons of water had to be dumped to satisfy the state, according to Sarah Bradley of Dark Gulch Environmental Consulting. The restaurants then trucked in water purchased in Fort Bragg.
Café Beaujolais owner Julian Lopez said that the abrupt “boil water” notice was unnecessary. “We have never served the public contaminated water and the state knows that,” Lopez said. He and other restaurants had been in ongoing discussions with the state about the filtration systems for each of their wells, with a plan to swap out the systems for state-approved systems.
“We had thought that the state was going to give notice of the type of system needed and that we’d then have 60 days to implement it.” said Lopez. Instead, he said the state “flipped the switch.”
Meanwhile, Café Beaujolais had to dump 5,500 gallons of water down Evergreen Street in Mendocino, water that Lopez said “was tested at the beginning of the month and was completely clean.”
Café Beaujolais is open for business and will continue to use water from Fort Bragg while making whatever changes to its filtration system the state requires, Lopez said.
Zach Rounds, the state water board representative for Mendocino, referred all requests for information to the board’s Office of Public Affairs. Calls and emails to that office were not returned by the time of publication.
This story originally appeared in The Mendocino Voice.