The city of Adak has downgraded a public notice calling for residents to boil their drinking water, after fixing a broken switch that compromised the water supply for nearly a month.
The community has been advised to boil water since 2007, because Adak’s aging treatment system relies on chlorine gas to disinfect water, rather than filtration.
In December, city officials raised the boil notice from “recommendation” to “requirement" after a malfunction made it impossible for the system to pump enough chlorine to meet safety standards.
The city has replaced the broken switch and the system is now operating normally, but officials say residents should continue boiling their drinking water. In the future, they hope to build a new water treatment plant to resolve Adak’s ongoing problems with water infrastructure.
