PARIS – The Paris Water District is flushing its system near where a water sample tested positive for a non-acute type of coliform bacteria.

“This is not an emergency, nobody’s being required to boil water,” said district general manager John Barlow. The flushing will continue until no bacteria are present, he said.

For the past decade, the federal government has required water districts to test for total coliform using a test that first checks for harmless varieties, then for the harmful types such as E. coli.

A “non-acute” or harmless type of coliform was detected in recent sampling on the east side of the Little Androscoggin River near the water district office, Barlow said.

The sample violates federal drinking water standards, and the law requires water districts to notify the public by using advertisements.

“It was only one colony. It took double the development time to get a positive result,” Barlow said. The coliform could have come from a sampling technique error or from slag off the inside of a pipe, he said.

“This is the second one in four years,” Barlow said of a positive test for coliform bacteria. He said that unlike many other water districts, “we don’t add any chemicals to our water, so you run the risk of getting a hit more often.”

The taste quality of Paris drinking water has won statewide awards several times in recent years. The district takes about 100 samples annually of its water at its four sampling sites.

He said, “We like to say our water is in its natural state” ever since the water district was formed in 1967. The water is drawn from wells in the river’s aquifer.