EPHRATA — The boil water advisory for the city of Ephrata was lifted shortly before 2 p.m. Wednesday, Ephrata City Administrator Ray Towry said. The advisory had been issued because of some concerns with water pressure and backflow into the city’s water infrastructure.

“We felt very confident the results would indicate there was no threat to the community based on the situation, and we think the state drinking water people felt the same way. That’s why it was an advisory boil and not a full-blown boil order. It was strictly a precautionary step,” said City Administrator Ray Towry.

Towry said that a boil water order — as opposed to an advisory — would have prompted the city to go door to door to advise residents of risks. However, the situation was not severe enough to warrant such action. City staff had gotten complaints Sunday morning of low water pressure from customers. After looking over the city’s water systems and making certain all water reservoirs were full, the city pulled four water samples as a precautionary measure for testing.

However, Monday saw multiple water users around the city reporting air in their pipes, Towry said, a sign that water had flowed backward in the system. The city then contacted the state of Washington for guidance and pulled water from all 16 test points throughout the water system and sent them to the state-certified lab in Pasco for review. The tests came back indicating that the city’s water was drinkable, which Towry said was the expected result.

“We are able to run those tests at our wastewater treatment plant, but we’re not a state-certified lab,” Towry said. “So, we did run those tests and at the 12-hour mark, you can generally get a really good idea of whether you’re going to have a hit or not.”

He said the local tests had shown the water to be clean, which was part of the reasoning to continue with an advisory rather than an order to boil water.

A boil water advisory is a precautionary measure for when there is potential of a water system emergency, according to a press release from the city of Ephrata. In the event that unhealthy water was detected — one of the tests had indicated contamination or other unhealthy conditions – a boil order would have been issued. A boil water order would have required system disinfection and communication efforts from the city, including door-to-door notices, written signs, and door tags left at residences and businesses, which Towry said was not necessary given indicators that the water was safe to consume.

Towry said he was confident enough in the city’s water that he had been drinking it himself throughout the boil advisory without concern when the Columbia Basin Herald spoke to him shortly before the official notice that the advisory had been lifted.

“Right now, I’m sitting here with a water bottle, just a thermal flask that I got from Costco about three years ago, and it’s full of city tap water and it’s the third one I’ve drank today,” Towry said.

For more information on the types of boil water notices, visit https://bit.ly/3qAhCci.

R. Hans Miller may be reached at [email protected]. He is also the editor for the paper’s sister publication, the Basin Business Journal. Visit the Journal’s website at BasinBusinessJournal.com.