Bartlesville water safe to consume again after mandatory boil order was issued

The City of Bartlesville is no longer under a boil order after some of the water tested positive for E. coli over the weekend. The order also affected the supply for several other communities that get water from the city.

City says routine sample tested positive for E. coli

Terry Lauritsen, director of water utilities, says routine water samples tested positive for E. coli and coliform, which led it to reach out to the Department of Environmental Quality.

"Truthfully, I was not prepared for that scenario," said Lauritsen. "We did rely on what guidance we received from the state. That's certainly going to be an item that we are going to investigate and review."

Water is safe to consume once again

The DEQ says lines were flushed and additional tests were done, which came back normal. The order was then lifted.

"Water plant was making good water before then, during the incident, and as of today," said Lauritsen. "No anomalies, no catastrophic failures, everything was testing as it should be.

Boil order affected businesses

"We decided to go ahead and close because we want to always put the safety of our customers first until we were able to sort it out," said Scott Smith, owner of Weeze's Cafe.

It's business as usual at the restaurant on Monday, hours after the boil order was lifted.

"Water drives everything," said Smith. "It drives our coffee, our sodas, a lot of our cooking involves that."