Officials Say Deadly Brain Eating Amoeba Found In Town's Water Supply

ARABI, LA- A deadly brain-eating amoeba has been found in the water system of a Louisiana town, and it may be spreading.

In the heat of the summer, Sonya Jarrow's daughter won't find relief today.

"My daughter just wanted to fill it up, so we're not going to do it," Sonya said.

The Jarrow's live just across Angela Street from a water sampling station which came up positive, for a brain eating amoeba, and the state health department is advising parents not to let their kids play in untreated pools.

The parish has begun a sixty day chlorine burn, to make sure the rest of the system is amoeba free.

But parish officials question whether the amoeba is truly in the system. They say the water's chlorine level was higher than the state department recommended, to keep the water safe, and it seems the pipe at the sampling station was cracked in a recent accident.

"What we believe we have had happen is there's been an infiltration of the water that was pulled around the sampling station," said St. Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta.

There was one other sample that turned up the presence of the amoeba but that was in a water sample, before it entered the water treatment plant.

The state health department will return to Angela Street and two other locations to run more samples this weekend, but results could take 24 days.

The parish continues flushing out lines, at several locations, in their effort to keep the system clean, and they're urging residents to refrain from shutting open hydrants, in spite of the perceived nuisance.

Residents say they'll take precautions, and wait for the threat to subside.