How the ColiMinder helps lifting boil orders
Klagenfurt, one of the largest cities in Austria, had found a enterococcus contamination in their drinking water network – just by chance during the regular testing regime, which relies on a standard culture-based laboratory method that takes 24+ hours to get a result.
A boil order had to be issued. In the meantime, they began immediately with testing the entire network to identify source and origin of the contamination and to manage additional disinfection requirements.
They began to narrow down the area of contamination using only the standard laboratory method. Given the long wait for results with this method, they estimated 6+ weeks before they could lift the boil order.
After a few days, the ColiMinder came in: with its 15 minutes time to a quantitative result on enterococci levels, they were able to speed up the testing regime immensely. They took about 30 samples a day, measured them in 15 minutes and were able to identify the location and source of contamination about 30 times faster than if they had relied on the standard method alone.
After 4 weeks instead of 6, they were able to lift the boil order and the citizens were very happy.
They now use a ColiMinder Mobile for continuous monitoring of their network, reservoirs and groundwater wells – to get an early indication if contamination is building up.
Would you like to increase the safety of your drinking water and avoid boil orders? Then just send us a message through the contact form!
