NEW SALEM, ND ( KXNET ) — Earlier this week, the town of New Salem issued a boil order for their drinking water after being contaminated by animals.

KX News paid a visit to the town to see how the residents are adjusting to the new restrictions.

“It’s mind-boggling,” shared Tanya Koenings, the deli and bakery manager at Tellman’s Market.

“People thought it was a hoax,” shared New Salem Mayor Lynette Fitterer. “The question was, ‘Is this for real,’ or ‘Is this a joke?’ Um no, it’s not a joke, it’s true.”

Mayor Fitterer says it all went down on the evening of April 10.

She explained, “The way we found it, you know, is Midco divers were just performing a regular maintenance on the water reservoir, and that’s when they discovered the breach.”

A small hole in the water tank allowed animal contamination — creating a big issue for the town.

“The rumors obviously began to start around town as far as, when we say there’s ‘critters’ in there, the hole is small, like I said, it’s not a big gaping hole, so we don’t have cats or dogs or things like that, it’s very small vermin, and probably very small amphibians,” asserted Mayor Ferderer.

On April 11, the entire water storage tank was drained, and a boil order was put in place for the town of New Salem. The town is now slowly adjusting to the new restrictions, and the stores are stocking up on bottled water and ice.

For the food industry, safety protocol has ramped up.

“You deal with normal microorganisms, bacterias, and things like that on a daily basis, and you know, we’re always sanitizing anyway on a daily basis,” shared Koenings. “When it comes into the water supply system, you’ve got to do something to alleviate any and all possibility of transferring that onto the food and again, out to the public.”

“We’ve been in early every morning, boiling water, just to make sure we get our triple sinks filled, our sanitizer buckets filled, and we get everything sanitized and wiped down properly, so it’s been really early mornings and late nights, that’s for sure,” related Malinda Ellingson, the owner of a New Salem coffee shop called Udderly Caffeinated.

Daily routines at home have changed as well.

“It takes dishes to a whole new level at home because you have to boil the water, let it cool, then you have to reboil the water to have hot water,” explained Koenings. “I did dishes last night and it took me 45 minutes, normally, I’m done in 15.”

“You know, you go to take a shower, brush your teeth in the morning, you don’t even think about it, and then it’s like, ‘wait,'” laughed Ellingson. “I did that this morning, ‘Let me get a bottle of water so I can brush my teeth,’ I never thought that would be something that we have to worry about.”

Now, the cleaning and disinfecting process will begin and it won’t be a quick fix, as the water needs to be chlorinated and held for 24 hours after the tank has been completely filled.

“It’s a 440,000-gallon tank, so obviously it’s going to take some time to fill — days, days to fill,” explained Mayor Fitterer.

She and other city officials are asking for patience from New Salem residents.

“We’re hopeful that the water samples can be collected probably by the middle of next week, and after that, we still have to wait until it passes the lab tests and we get the clearance from the North Dakota Department of Health before we can lift the boil order.”

In the meantime, the community is rallying together with many rural residents turning on their taps for the town.

“It’s just kind of nice to see how a small community can really put that into action and be there for one another,” shared Koenings.

Mayor Fitterer says this isn’t anything the town can’t handle.

“We can overcome anything in New Salem, you know, we’ve got a lot of things that go on here, and people adapt real quick.”

She is hoping the boil order can be lifted by the end of next week. We’ll continue to keep you updated on this story as we hear more.

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