Typo Led To Indy Boil-Water Advisory

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indianapolis officials said a typo led the city to advise more than 1 million city residents to boil their tap water Jan. 6.

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Officials said a plant operator entered incorrect information into a computer, resulting in the mistaken order for residents to boil tap water because of the suspected presence of bacteria in the chemical feed system.

The advisory lasted from 4 p.m. Jan. 6 until 10:30 a.m. Jan. 7.

Indianapolis Public Schools were closed Jan. 6 due to the boil-water advisory, as well as two township schools. Other township schools were placed on a two-hour delay.

The employee who made the mistake was fired, RTV6 reported.

Veolia Water Co., a private firm that oversees Indianapolis Water, issued a report explaining what happened, RTV6's Julie Pursley reported.

"The data that the employee was the ground water and the surface water mixture. He took the two numbers and flipped them and was putting too much of the well water into the system," Veolia Water spokesman David Gadis said.

Veolia officials said changes were being made in the computer system to ensure a similar situation doesn't happen again..

The advisory caused some local businesses to lose money.

Downtown restaurant Alcatraz Brewing Co. said it had purchased hundreds of dollars of ice, water and soda, most of which were never used, Pursley reported.

"We just have got to do whatever we're told to do. Health board tells us to close down water, we gotta close it down and hopefully stuff doesn't happen like that in the future," manager Steven Enriquez said.

IPS officials said the day lost will have to be made up, and that around $25,000 was wasted for the lunches that had to be thrown away, Pursley reported.

School officials said they were glad that procedures were in place to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Officials maintained that at no time was the water ever unsafe, Pursley reported.

Indianapolis Water serves most of Marion County and portions of Hendricks, Boone, Hamilton and Hancock counties.