Arimo water boil order lifted, Marsh Valley School District to start classes on Monday

ARIMO — The Marsh Valley School District has postponed the start of its 2024-25 school year after E. coli was recently discovered in Arimo’s drinking water.

Classes for the Marsh Valley High School and Marsh Valley Middle School were set to begin on Wednesday but will instead begin on Monday following a recent water boil order that was issued for the city of Arimo earlier this month.

“We waited as long as we could to make a decision,” the school district said in a press release issued Wednesday.

The E. coli contamination was discovered on Aug. 1 when Arimo provided the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality with a routine sample from its drinking water system, according to DEQ Regional Engineering Manager Allan Johnson.

“We notified Arimo by phone and sent them a letter on Aug. 2 telling them that they needed to go back and verify the results with additional samples, including their spring, their well and three additional samples in their distribution system,” Johnson said. “Their spring, which is their primary water source, was good but the results for the well tests came back positive for E. coli again.”

The DEQ informed Arimo officials on Aug. 3 that it was required to implement a boil advisory for its residents and undergo an assessment from one of the DEQ staff engineers, Johnson said.

“That engineer identified a number of things that were concerning that had to do with the layout of the well and that the well vent screen might have been damaged,” Johnson said. “There was a pump-to-waste line that was submerged in water and some other things that could all be contributing factors to the well having been contaminated.”

Johnson said the city worked to correct the issues and took further samples earlier this week and the DEQ received the results on Wednesday that indicated the E. coli issue had been resolved, said Johnson, adding that the boil advisory was lifted on Wednesday afternoon.

“The city was very responsive in trying to take care of the issue and making sure that the water got disinfected,” Johnson said.

According to Southeastern Idaho Public Health officials, no illnesses had been reported as a result of the contaminated water as of Wednesday afternoon.

In spite of the lifted boil order, the Marsh Valley School District elected to keep classes canceled on Thursday (Marsh Valley School District does not host classes on Friday), and will instead start school on Monday, according to Superintendent Gary Tucker.

“We want to give all of our people a day to flush and sanitize all of our systems so that everything is safe for our kids to start on Monday,” he said. “Safety for our kids is our first priority and we want to make sure we are ready to go.”