Water Fully Restored To All Brighton Water Customers

BRIGHTON, Colo. (CBS4) - All Brighton residents can drink tap water after a three-day boil order was dropped Saturday and water was fully restored to 18 homes on Sunday after crews completed disinfection and testing protocols to ensure there was no danger.

The E. coli threat scared many of the 34,000 water customers. Tests came back positive for the water in the area of 33rd Avenue and Southern Street.

"I had the whole week off so I had seen that they were coming around and testing but didn't know why, but we found out why," resident Jeff Hajdu said.

That was at the beginning of the week, but with the holiday quickly approaching Hajdu left his house and three days ago got a phone call.

"The neighbor that was taking care of my pets – I was gone for the weekend -- she called me up and let me know that, 'Hey, there's a problem,' " he said.

Hajdu, like most of his neighbors, took the city's offer to stay at a local hotel. Because of that, police stayed on the street to keep the homes safe. Some neighbors didn't leave and police provided bottles of water for drinking. A city truck was parked on the street full of non-potable water for toilets.

"It's just something that happened, we've got some great neighbors here, it's a great neighborhood and, you know, sometimes things happen," Hajdu said.

"Residents of these 18 homes, the only ones in the city to have had their water service shut off, have been extremely cooperative and understanding as utilities workers labored throughout the weekend to completely disinfect that section of the system and examine each residence for any signs of contamination or its source," city spokesperson John Bradley said in a statement.

The town said there's no evidence the E. coli contamination ever spread beyond the one street and that the entire distribution system was never compromised.

"At this time, the City of Brighton can confirm that the problem never spread beyond this isolated area, and that the City of Brighton water distribution system is, and has been, a safe source of drinking water for its residents," Bradley said.

Investigators are still trying to find the exact source of the bacteria.