Ohio Department of Health (ODOH) regulates
private water systems. Private water systems are considered “private” when they
offer water to fewer than fifteen service connections; and they do not
regularly provide water to more than twenty five people in a sixty day period.
Private water systems include everything from springs, ponds, water storage
tanks to wells and cisterns. These
systems give water supply to things like toilet flushing and laundry machines. ODOH private water systems program gives instruction and training on the construction
and maintenance work these water systems need to operate properly.
It also
investigates if there is contamination in the water, and what might be in that
water. E. coli is a popular water contaminator, because the pipes that run
clean water run very close to the pipes that run sewage water. If one of those
pipes were to break, the water would quickly become contaminated with E. coli or
coliforms. A coliform is a gram
negative, facultative anaerobe that grows and lives in soils, plants, and in the
intestines of humans and animals. Coliform aids in the digestion of food.
E. coli is a type
of fecal coliform. It’s an easy indicator of water contamination because it
does not live in wet areas for a long time. E. coli 0157 has been in the news for its potentially
dangerous outbreaks, and its associated illnesses. For example, E. coli 0157
has been spoken about in regards to Haiti, with all of the destruction in
Haiti, there is a lot of E. coli illness outbreaks. You can contract E. coli
contamination by drinking contaminated water or eating contaminated food. You
will not always become ill from it, but if E. coli is present in your water,
there may be other contaminants in it too. E coli causes diarrheal infections
and urinary tract infections.
Properly
constructed underground drinking water systems should not have contamination
problems. There should be 0ppm coliform bacteria when the water is tested. If
you use cisterns, springs or ponds as a drinking water source, you should have
treatment devices disinfecting the water.
sources:
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