By Heather Hintze

COTTAGE GROVE, Ore.--  City workers spent Tuesday evening going door to door at houses east of Interstate 5, which may have contaminated water.  "It's important to get that notice out and contact every water user to let them know. Our crew was out until 12:30, knocking on doors, waking people up, telling people not to use the water when they got back up in the morning," says City Manager Richard Meyers.

Monday's storm knocked out power to the Row River Treatment Facility, and the backup generator also failed.  The power came back four hours later, but some water--which had already been filtered--may not have been thoroughly clorinated.

At The Cottage Restaurant, owner Hollie St. Clair says the boil alert has caused some minor inconveniences.  She boiled water for ice tea and coffee, but the restaurant was unable to serve soda because a water line connects to the machine.  St. Clair says her main concern, though, was the dishwasher, "I contacted the city to ask about our dishwasher because otherwise we would have closed because it's too hard to try to operate the kitchen and do dishes and have to boil the water to do the dishes."  The city says as long as the dishwasher uses a sanitizer, it's okay to use.

Customers were glad to see the restaurant following the advisory.  "I wondered if I would be able to have lunch in town as I planned, or not. And I was happy to find when I came here the water had been boiled so I could have my lunch, because I drink only water," says customer Kathryn Kemp.