E. coli found in Estancia water

ESTANCIA, N.M. (KRQE) - The entire town of Estancia spent nearly four days boiling their water to keep from getting sick.

On Friday the town received a positive test showing E. coli in one of its wells. After days spent flushing the entire water system, the boil water advisory was finally lifted late Monday afternoon.

With the advisory in place school was canceled, and the restaurants in town never even opened. The mayor said it was just a precaution.

“We don’t want anybody in danger, so our utmost priority is people’s safety,” Mayor Ted Barela said.

Barela said the town still does not know how the water became contaminated with E. coli, but he did say it was isolated to just one of the town’s four wells.

Since the contamination was announced Barela said they’ve taken calls from people saying they’re sick.

“I know that there’s been some isolated cases of individuals calling in," he said. "We don’t know if that is actually attributed to the water or not.”

Businesses can now re-open, Barela said. And late Monday afternoon the superintendent of schools announced kids will be back in class on Tuesday.