A week following a boil water notice in the Five Cities area, San Luis Obispo County is still investigating the cause of the contamination.
While that order has been lifted for the communities of Arroyo Grande, Grover Beach, Oceano, Pismo Beach and Avila Beach, some residents are still taking precautions.
"I still go get my bottled water and pour that on a washcloth to do my face because I don't want to do that tap water, worrying that it's going to get in my eye and contaminate my eye and my body," said Kathy Wilson, Arroyo Grande resident
"I know that our water quality here isn't super, but it is what it is," said Johnny Zeigler, Arroyo Grande resident.
Nola Engelskirger from San Luis Obispo County Public Works says she understands people's concerns, but now that the notice is lifted, there is nothing to worry about.
"People should know their water is safe. It is meeting all drinking water standards. The boil water notice was lifted, and right now we are doing everything we can to take precautions to not have that happen again," she said.
The county is also still trying to find answers to explain the contamination.
"We are routinely doing our testing and we have performed inspections on our pipelines on the treatment plant, on our reservoirs, to determine if we could find a cause for this, but we have not found one yet," Engelskirger said.
Other people felt that the notice should've been issued sooner. The initial testing took place on April 28, but notifications weren't sent out until April 30.
Engelskirger says the notifications were sent out as soon as they confirmed the contamination.
"The test we perform takes 18 to 24 hours, so we took the test on Monday like regular. It took 24 hours to get the results, and there were some positive hits in the system. We retested to confirm those results. That took another 24 hours, so we needed that full time to confirm the results and follow the protocols," Engelskirger said.
The water distributed to the Five Cities area comes from Lopez Lake. Engelskirger says they test the water every week and that this is the first time a boil water notice like this has been issued in that area.
"I understand how big of an impact this was to the community and we are doing everything we can to address it," she said.
