The Gallia County Health Department announced Thursday, June 5, 2014 that all restaurants using the City of Gallipolis water supply must close immediately due to the lack of a safe and secure water source. Due to the volume of water needed to safely operate a restaurant, all food operations must cease until such time that a safe and secure water source is available,” explains Director of Environmental Health at the Gallia County Health Department, Barb Bradley. Closing for even a day or two is a huge hit financially for a restaurant. The Gallia County Health Department regrets that the food service establishments have to be closed and hopes this situation is resolved soon so normal operations can resume. “We do not know that the water is contaminated. What we do know is that conditions are such that it is strongly possible that there has been contamination and we certainly don’t want to put anybody at risk or create the possibility that there could be illness that would result from this,” says Barb Bradley. Once the conditions of Ohio Administrative Code 3717-1-05 have been met, the Gallia County Health Department is calling in additional resources to assist with getting the food service establishments approved to reopen. The conditions that must be met include use of drinking water for everything except nonculinary purposes such as air conditioning, non food equipment cooling, and fire protection. Additionally, the water source and system shall be of sufficient capacity to meet the peak water demands of the food service operation or retail food establishment; hot water generation and distribution systems shall be sufficient to meet the peak hot water demands, and water under pressure shall be provided to all fixtures, equipment, and nonfood equipment that are required to use water. Before reopening once the boil order is lifted, the food establishments will have a lot of additional work to do before serving the public such as flushing their water system and working to wash, rinse, and sanitize all food contact equipment. The Gallia County Health Department thanks everyone for their cooperation and patience and encourages your support and patronage of the food service operations once re-opened to help offset the impact of this crisis. As a reminder: officials say under the boil order residents should bring water to full, rolling boil for at least 3 minute before consumption, food preparation, dishwashing, tooth brushing, wound care and bathing infants who may ingest bath water.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 19:40:37 +0000
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