McDonald's Says 'No Reason to be Concerned'

It’s not the kind of news you want to read before entering a restaurant.

Posted on each of the entrances of the McDonald’s in East Hampton is a notice informing the public that a recent test of its water exceeded the maximum contaminant level for fecal coliform or E. Coli.

water source is an on-site well.

The restaurant did shut down for a brief time over the weekend but otherwise has remained open, using external sources of water. Among some of the temporary remedies, McDonald’s is only serving bottled and canned beverages, using bagged water in the preparation of food and has reduced some of its offerings. For the time being, what you can’t get are fountain drinks, hot coffee, iced coffee, McCafe drinks and oatmeal.

Of course, what residents want to be assured of is whether the restaurant, which is popular with breakfast goers, teenagers after school, parents looking for an easy dinner as they race their kids to and from activities and many others, safe to dine at?

“No reason to be concerned,” said Sarah Melnitsky of Cronin and Company, a public relations firm for McDonald’s. “Safety is of the upmost importance and a top priority. What they have set in place in terms of the bottled water and potable water, no customer should be concerned at all.”

McDonald’s did close briefly Friday night at 8:30 p.m. but reopened on Saturday. No other interruptions in business hours are expected.

“It’s an issue they are continuing to deal with, with the help of state and local officials,” Melnitsky said.

McDonald’s is required to do quarterly sampling for bacteria. Tests were done on Thursday, which revealed the presence of E.Coli.

“The process since notification is to identify what the problem is,” said Thad King, the Director of Health for the Chatham Health District. “They’ve been working primarily with the Department of Public Health since they have jurisdiction over public water supply. There has been sampling conducted in order to isolate a specific component of the system that might be problematic. Such as, the well, or whether its in the distribution system, perhaps coming from the filter treatment, or perhaps there is a cross connection. What they discovered was that contamination was from the well. The system was fully inspected by the Department of Health sanitary engineers and they have a list of potential sources of contamination.”

King believes McDonald’s plans to take further steps after the bacteria problem is resolved.

“I think they have right now a plan for making improvements to the well itself and its physical construction, as well as installing a chlorination system and potentially siting a new well on the property,” he said.

In the interim, McDonald’s is working closely with the health district as well as looking for the best way to provide water to the restaurant while more testing is conducted and until the problem is brought under control.

“They have been working with us as a local health department to continue their operations on a limited basis without water in compliance with health codes,” King said. “So, we’ve been working with them and monitoring their production in the store relative to that. They haven’t been using the water. I think as a more intermediate step, they are looking at bringing in water from a tanker, which is not an unusual tactic, chlorinated water from another approved source, to supply the distribution system within the facility so they can operate under somewhat normal conditions. They are waiting to do that based on the last inspection and re-chlorination of the system which occurred on Friday and they are awaiting another round of bacterial tests that they should have [Tuesday] morning before they can have approval for the tankered water.

King did not think there had ever been a previous bacteria issue with McDonald’s, which was built in 1984.

“McDonald’s has operated for many, many quarters, many years, without a positive bacteria test,” he said.

However, he said bacteria for individual wells, whether a private well or a public well, can happen almost at any time.

“A lot of wells become contaminated and chlorination is the standard operating procedure for that and they will resolve just from that treatment,” King said. “Sometimes they don’t resolve. There could be other components that you can’t visually inspect that might potentially be a source. So, the monitoring they are doing is to document that the distribution system for the store is cleared up.”

King thinks McDonald’s will repeat the chlorination process that was done on Friday, do another round of sampling after that as well as do some repair, and in the meantime get clearance on the system to bring in an alternate source of water.

On Monday, Nick Haskos, the owner and operator of the East Hampton McDonald’s, issued this statement.

“The safety of our customer and employees is our top priority. The McDonald’s of East Hampton complies with state water regulations and is voluntarily cooperating with state and local officials in dealing with this matter. In an abundance of caution, the restaurant has been using bottled water and preparing food with water from an external source while dealing with this situation. We apologize for any inconvenience.”