CENTENNIAL – On the afternoon of August 4th, 2021, the City of Englewood notified the Arapahoe County Office of Emergency Management (ACOEM) of two positive E. coli tests at one location had occurred. State regulations require that a boil water order is put into effect when this happens. ACOEM, using IPAWS (Integrated Public Alert Warning System) software, set parameters of the affected area within the City of Englewood to notify residents of the boil order. For reasons currently under investigation by software engineers, the alert went beyond the set parameters notifying residents outside the City. The ACOEM and the software provider are actively investigating the software issue. The ACOEM apologized for any confusion and inconvenience this software glitch may have caused to those not affected by the boil order.

By 8:30 pm, the City of Englewood, supported by the ACOEM, established a water distribution point at the Civic Center. This partnership immediately delivered 5,400 individual bottles of drinking water and 30 water tanks holding 275 gallons each for a total of 8,250 gallons to the distribution point. On August 5th, the Office of Emergency Management is still on scene and will continue to support the provision of drinking water to the residents of the City of Englewood for the duration of the emergency.

The ACOEM is values our partnership with the City of Englewood and looks forward to concluding the investigation and supporting any necessary improvements of our alerting system.