Contaminated water leaves North Fork residents worried

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Local businesses in North Fork are losing money after E. coli and Coliform was found in the city's well.

Miguel Arce is the owner of La Cabana and he didn't walk out of the supermarket Friday with food to cook.

Instead, he left with ice and jugs of water since the water he uses from the city's well is infected. It's a contamination that forced him to close his business until further notice.

"I need to keep working to pay my bills," Arce said. "And having contaminated water kind of make it difficult."

North Fork District Supervisor Tom Wheeler says the bacteria was found Wednesday during a monthly routine test. And after getting the result his staff immediately issued a boil water advisory.

He says the drought though likely caused this problem.

"Now that we got all this fresh water coming they're flushing all these dry fractures and our septic systems are still working so that's still coming down and that might be where this came from," Wheeler said.

Outside of how it got there, all Cheryl Adams knows for certain is that it is cutting into her sales.

"We cannot sell coffee," she said. "Soda fountains, we cannot sell our hot foods, we cannot sell."

But it's a different story for Alice Koda. She dodged a bullet by owning a restaurant with its own well.

"It's good for me because it brings in a little more business," Koda said. "But, I do feel sorry for those guys."

And sorry for the residents who are having to boil their water and purchase bottled water to avoid using what is in the well.

"It's just little nerve-wracking to have to go through that every day," Resident Joshua Kaden said. "It's a little frustrating."