TEMPLE, Texas — The City of Temple violated state drinking water treatment standards for most of 2019, according to a city press release.
The city was notified of the violation by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, who said the city had failed to treat water for a contaminant that causes illness if ingested, called cyptosporidium, from March through November of 2019.
Temple water customers were notified of the violation through a letter sent out by the city on April 25.
"The City of Temple.... failed to meet the minimum treatment technique requirements for the months of March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October and November 2019," the letter said. "Specifically, our water system failed to provide conforming Cryptosporidium treatment."
In a press release, the city said "a software error caused inaccurate readings, leading to the violation."
Although the treatment of the water for the contaminant was lacking, the city said that "it does not necessarily mean the contaminant was present in the water."
They added that public works has not received evidence indicating the public was at risk during the violation period.
Since being alerted by the TCEQ, the city said it has taken "immediate corrective action to resolve this issue and see that it does not happen again in the future."
The city indicated it has also updated its operating procedures and added safety parameters to identify and prevent similar issued from happening in the future.
Ingestion of the the contaminant Cryptosporidium, tiny parasites, can lead to cryptosporidiosis, according to the Mayo Clinic. A Cryptosporidium infection comes with symptoms including watery diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and more.
The clinic's web page said:
Symptoms can last for up to two weeks, though they might come and go for up to a month, even in people with healthy immune systems. Some people with cryptosporidium infection have no symptoms.
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