The Columbus City Utilities department is putting new communication procedures in place after last month’s citywide boil water advisory.

Officials say that there was some confusion and breakdowns as they worked to alert the public to a well that tested positive for e-coli.

Keith Reeves, the city utilities director, says that the city is taking several steps to improve those communications.

Among the changes will be a plan to bring employees in to answer phones no matter the hour, better communication with restaurants, the food service industry and emergency officials, and putting web templates and other procedures in place in advance so that they are ready to go as soon as needed.

Reeves updated the Utilities Services Board on the problems encountered and the proposed solutions at a monthly meeting yesterday.

The utilities department believes they have found the source of the e-coli contamination. A video inspection of the well revealed that corrosion in the well casing left small holes in the tainted well near the Bartholomew County 4-Fairgrounds.

Reeves said that the corrosion appears to have allowed water close to the surface to enter the well,causing contamination.

The affected well is one of 18 the city operates. Despite the hot weather and the increased water usage during the summer, Reeves said that the city has plenty of water from the other wells.

City officials stress that the public was never in danger and that the positive readings came before the water had been treated with chlorine.

Reeves said that the initial positive test of the distribution system turned out to be a false positive. But that fluke led the department to test its wells, which led to the discovery of actual e-coli in the tainted well.