Coliform Bacteria Detected in Medfield Drinking Water

The Medfield Water Department recently issued a notice regarding the town's drinking water after its water system violated a drinking water standard.

The water department stressed that this violation is not an emergency and wanted to issue a notice for informational purposes. The notice was published on Medfield's town website reads as follows: 

"Our water system recently violated a drinking water standard. Although this is not an emergency, as our customers, you have a right to know what happened, what you should do and what we are doing to correct this situation. We routinely monitor for the presence of drinking water contaminants. More than one sample or greater than five percent of our samples collected for coliform bacteria during the month of June showed the positive presence of coliform bacteria. This exceeds acceptable standards."

What Should I Do? 

• You do not need to boil your water or take other corrective actions. However, if you have specific health concerns, consult your doctor. 
• People with severely compromised immune systems, infants and some elderly may be at increased risk. These people should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers. General guidelines on ways to lessen the risk of infection by microbes are available from EPA's Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791.

What Does This Mean?

This is not an emergency. If it had been you would have been notified immediately. Total coliform bacteria are generally not harmful themselves. Coliforms are bacteria which are naturally present in the environment and are used as an indicator that other potentially-harmful bacteria may be present. Coliforms were found in more samples than allowed and this was a warning of potential problems. 

Usually, coliforms are sign that there could be a problem with the systems source water, treatment process or distribution system (pipes or storage tanks). Whenever we detect coliform bacteria in any sample, we do follow-up testing to see if other bacteria of greater concern, such as fecal coliform or E. coli, are present. We did not find any of these bacteria in our subsequent testing. If we had, we would have notified you immediately. 

What is Being Done? 

We are chlorinating the water system. We have increased our sampling for coliform bacteria. Recent sampling has not detected any of these bacteria, which shows that this problem has been resolved. We are in contact with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) who is evaluating the effectiveness of the steps taken to see if any further action is required. 

For more information, please contact Kenneth Feeney, DPW Superintendent, at (508) 906-3002 or kfeeney@medfield.net. 

The Water Department asks that you share this information with all the other people who drink this water, especially those who may not have seen this notice.