Chief: Kzoo water safe to use, consume

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) - Samples from three Kalamazoo water storage facilities, collected and analyzed following a security breach, showed the city water supply is not contaminated, and is safe to use and consume.

Thursday afternoon, Chief Jeffrey Hadley said extensive bacteriological and chemical testing was done on water collected from the Blakeslee, Dartmouth and Beech water storage facilities. None of the samples revealed contamination of any kind.

Routine checks for "volatile organic compounds, various chemical compounds, as well for coliform bacteria" are done by Kalamazoo city staff, and tests done following Wednesday's vandalism reveal there is nothing "of concern in the water supply." Additionally, no bacteria was detected in the system.

The portion of the Blakeslee Tank affected by the intruder will be drained and inspected by late Friday morning, then cleaned and disinfected before it's refilled for use next week.

Hadley said he believes the intruders were "some kids or adults screwing around, being curious."

New security measures will be put into place to help prevent this kind of incident in the future, Hadley said, but at this point, city officials have not alerted the Department of Homeland Security.

Still, the investigation continues. "Certainly you get an incident like that, you want to get the facts straight," he said. "You don't want to put misinformation out there you can't take back."

Security measures like cameras and motion detectors are not in place to alert authorities about tampering as it's happening. But, he said, "Once we're at the conclusion we will sit down and talk about what reasonable security measures we can undertake at these facilities to catch this stuff sooner."