17 Oklahoma wells near outbreak positive for E. coli
February 25 2009
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma officials say 17 private water wells have tested positive for E. coli bacteria near a town where an outbreak last summer killed one man and sickened hundreds of other people.
That outbreak was blamed on a popular restaurant in Locust Grove where many of those sickened had eaten.
But the state attorney general later suggested it may have been caused by well water contaminated by nearby poultry farms. The poultry industry denies the claim.
The state Department of Environmental Quality said Wednesday it was unable to link the rare strain of E. coli responsible for the outbreak to the bacteria discovered in the wells.