San Diego - recycled water connected to drinking water supply ...

Another case of human error - recycled water treated to irrigation standard misconnected to drinking water supply.

Excerpt from San Diego Union Tribune:

Store owners with tainted water await health-risk report results

6 September 2007

Spring Valley – Store owners at an Eastlake business park said yesterday that the Otay Water District has not backed up promises to help them determine the health risks of drinking treated sewage water for two years.

“We don't want a battle. We just want to know what's going on,” Amy Wise, co-owner of a gift store, told district board members during a board meeting in Spring Valley yesterday.

Employees of the Fenton Business Center's 17 stores learned on Aug. 17 that tests from a private lab showed they'd been drinking recycled water – treated sewage used for irrigation.

Otay officials said a recycled-water pipe was mistakenly connected to a drinking-water meter two years ago.

The water district's general manager, Mark Watton, had promised to give store owners test results showing exactly what was in the recycled water.

Owners said they fear they consumed traces of heavy metals or flushed drugs, and that they need the test results to ensure they receive proper medical care.
...

A report by Otay officials said the misconnection occurred because district inspectors failed to follow regulations governing oversight of construction projects. They were also hampered by inaccurate and confusing construction plans that changed in the middle of the project without notice to the water district, the report said.

Otay officials said they will more clearly mark pipe connections with purple to indicate they are for recycled water. The water will also be tested at the meter and at a new customer's tap.

Jorge Perez, who owns a graphics store at the center, said medical tests given to him and relatives who drank the water showed suspicious bacteria. Perez said his mother, 67, suffered severe abdominal pains last month, and he has suffered diarrhea.

See - Recycled water connected to drinking water supply in error.