Jones On Third Day Of Boil Order

Jones residents have been boiling their water for three days now, after E. coli was detected in the town's supply Saturday.

The mayor and the Department of Environmental Quality are working to figure out how this happened, and what they'll need to do moving forward.

“My heart sank when I first heard the news,” Jones Mayor Ray Poland said.

According to Poland, Jones’ water had a perfect record before all this.

“We’ve never had to treat our water it's always been good, sweet well water. And we've really been proud of that,” Poland said.

That all changed over the weekend, when tests detected E. coli in the water, which goes out to more than 500 households.

Town officials spread the word quickly.

SEE: Community Comes Together To Bring Bottled Water To Jones Residents

“We did we put the flyer together that DEQ provided for us, and our PWA employees went door to door and handed them or talked to the customer. If nobody was home, they left a notice on the door,” Poland said.

The DEQ was in Jones throughout the day Monday, taking samples and working with town officials.

“We don't know the cause of the contamination at this time. We hope through this assessment that that's something we'll be able to figure out,” Erin Hatfield with the DEQ said.

Hatfield said residents should bring water to a rolling boil at least a minute before using.

Several donors have also given bottled water to the First United Methodist Church in Jones to hand out to residents.

“We expect that we should be off a boil order Thursday evening. That's our hope,” Poland said.

Unfortunately, for the town’s budget, Poland said a water treatment system will likely be put into place for the first time.

Funds for the system will come from the Jones Public Works budget, according to the mayor.