giardia, viruses and cryptosporidium. "We are more vulnerable because they are not covered," said Marjie Lopez Read, EID water quality superintendent, "even though the treatment is complete at the water plants." William Hetland, EID general manager, said the district hasn't ignored the problem of covered reservoirs. Several years ago, he said, it began buying rubberized membrane covers for the reservoirs. Seven had already been installed when, in July, the California Department of Health Services ordered the district to either build steel tanks or put concrete lids on all of its reservoirs. The rubber covers, the state decided after a 1997 investigation, allow too much contamination of treated water by animals, vegetation and rain. "We've been addressing this problem," said Hetland. "Maybe not as fast as they'd like, but we have been addressing the problem." Until 1990, he said, the district didn't even filter its water. It simply pumped American River water to the reservoirs and treated it with chlorine. The state put EID on a four-year schedule to cover its reservoirs, a job that EID board member Raymond Larsen estimated would cost $30 million to $40 million and force the district, with an annual water supply budget of $10 million, to raise rates 50 percent. The state also ordered the district to advise customers that if they're elderly, pregnant, ill, HIV-positive, undergoing cancer therapy or otherwise suffering from a compromised immune system, they should either use bottled water or boil their water. A flier titled "EID News from the Water Front" was mailed to all customers and sent home with school children, Hetland said. But several residents said they either didn't notice it or didn't realize its significance. The warning about boiling water appeared on the third page. "I never saw this notice," said resident Reimer. "I always look." To back up its enforcement order, the Department of Health Services prepared a vividly photogr...
