Oregon Public Broadcasting

Portland officials are no longer asking residents on the west side of the city to boil their water. As Rob Manning reports, test results Sunday were negative for e coli bacteria.

Late Sunday afternoon, Mayor Sam Adams lifted the first-ever “boil” order for Portland’s water.

Sam Adams: “We are pleased to report that it is absolutely safe, based on our testing, our most recent testing, to drink Portland’s water.”

Adams recommended people run their taps for two minutes to flush out any possible bacteria.

The mayor says the Water Bureau’s testing and responses worked appropriately – though Adams says he wants to try getting the word out in ways other than the traditional news media. He suggested collecting cell phone numbers of Portland residents.

Health officials say they’ll probably never know if anyone actually got sick as a result of the bacteria, because of how common the symptoms are.

The Water Bureau concluded that the e coli affected one reservoir in Washington Park, but officials are still investigating how it got in there.