By Kerri Pepoy,Staff Writer

PARIS – One of the town’s two wells has been thoroughly cleaned and a test conducted last week for contamination was negative, Steve Arnold, manager of the Paris Utility District, said Monday.

The No. 6 well was brought back online Friday. The No. 5 well was taken offline the same day, and that well should be completely cleaned by the first or second week of January, Arnold said. Both wells are off High Street.

After a water test came back positive Nov. 9 for E. coli bacteria, indicating fecal matter, the state ordered all 1,000 or so Paris customers to boil their water before drinking it. The boil-water order was lifted Nov. 16 once the water system was chlorinated and retested.

A Connecticut firm was hired to clean the wells, which will cost roughly $25,000.

Arnold said the source of the contamination still has not been determined, although there are several theories, including holes in the reservoir cover that allowed bacteria into the 2.5 million-gallon reservoir off East Oxford Road.

Another theory is that E. coli was drawn into one of the two wells by pumping. Excessive pumping was required recently to compensate for a water tower under renovation.

Arnold said the system will be continually chlorinated for an indefinite period until the state tells the district the process can be discontinued. That won’t happen until the contamination source is identified and remedied.

“They will make a determination based on information we gave them from investigations we completed,” he said.

The state gave the district a June 30 deadline to file a report detailing how utility officials intend to prevent bacteria from contaminating the water supply again. The state also asked the district to complete an internal reservoir inspection by Jan. 15.

The district is working with engineers for the reservoir inspection to determine what, if any, changes or adjustments are necessary to prevent future contamination. Arnold has said the district may refurbish, downsize or discontinue the reservoir. There is another town reservoir that the district can tap.

The district also will examine the size of the tanks in the wells to uncover any possible structural issues, and a decision could be made to downsize, Arnold said.

“We’re trying to cover all the avenues,” he said.