LA CROSSE, WI — Water officials say that viruses from human sources occur in the area's drinking water before it is treated through chlorination, according to the La Crosse Tribune.
Researchers have tested 48 untreated water samples from six of the city's 15 wells. Half the samples contained at least one type of gastrointestinal virus and 23 percent contained two or more, the newspaper reported.
The study, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, was done by the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation and US Geological Survey to see if the amount of Mississippi River water moving through the riverbank and infiltrating city wells is related to the frequency of virus detection in the city's wells.
"There is no information from the medical community that would suggest a virus sickness that isn't related to person-to-person contact or what you would expect form normal situations," said Mark Johnson, director of the city's Water Utility.
Ron Berg, health department environmental health manager, agreed that chlorination is making the city's water safe. "All the tests were taken prior to chlorination, which has proven to be an effective means of killing viruses in water," Berg said in the article.
"The only other human fecal source near the wells is sanitary sewer lines," Mark Borchardt, lead investigator on the study, said in the article. "Sanitary sewers can leak, and it is possible the leakage is large enough to reach the wells."
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