Residents of the Spirit Lake East subdivision are being advised to boil their water to deal with coliform bacteria.

Monthly samples taken in mid-September and again last week turned up the coliform, said Tony Davis, water quality officer with the Idaho Division of Environmental Quality. Coliform bacteria is not necessarily harmful, but may indicate the presence of disease-causing organisms.

Symptoms include diarrhea, cramps, nausea, jaundice and associated headaches and disease.

The water system was chlorinated late last month and that normally takes care of the problem.

DEQ officials suspect there is some problem in the water distributions system. In a typical system, small cracks and leaks allow dirty water to make its way back into the water mains during a power outage.

“It doesn’t look like they have a bad water system,” Davis said. “The problem is, there are miles of water main.”

The water system is run by the Spirit Lake East Water Company. It serves 156 homes in a subdivision north of state Highway 54 and east of Spirit Lake.

It last had a positive coliform sample in October 1993.

, DataTimes