SES Water has told customers it is now safe to drink from the tap after confirming there is “no indication” that water leaving its Westwood treatment works is contaminated.
The company recorded a positive sample for E-Coli at the plant on Thursday (7 October) so put in place a precautionary boil notice for customers whose mains water is supplied from the site – around 6,500 properties in and around Oxted in Surrey.
On Saturday (9 October) morning it confirmed that the advice was being lifted after final tests confirmed there was no risk.
Wholesale director Tom Kelly said: “Each year we carry out 130,000 tests on around 13,000 samples at every point from source to tap and incidents like this are extremely rare.
“Our investigations into the isolated sample result continue but there is no indication of contaminated water leaving the treatment works.
“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and concern this situation has caused to some of our customers, but putting a precautionary measure in place was the right thing to do, based on the information available at the time, to safeguard public safety”.