The warning came from a private lab in London that claims it sent five faxes to the ministry's Owen Sound office between February and May after tests found coliform contamination. Asked how often, Steele refused to respond, saying an investigation of files, begun yesterday, was not complete. Coliform is a bacteria naturally present in plants and soil. E. coli, a form of the bacteria, normally lives in the intestines of humans and other warm-blooded animals, such as cattle.
Most strains are harmless but some can be deadly.
A London lab, GAP EnviroMicrobial Services, found coliform contamination in Walkerton water samples five times from February to May, the lab's Gary Palmateer said. Such results indicated contaminated surface water may have seeped into the well, he said. Although the results didn't show the presence of E. coli, Palmateer said they were a warning sign which warranted investigation. There must have been a surface water source that got into the groundwater. If there was fecal waste getting into the well, it could result in the sort of the incident that happened.