FERRIDAY &8212; The water system is fixed, the water has been tested and now, after five days, the boil order has been called off, city officials said Tuesday.

Water Department Supervisor Gregory Griggs said a battery of tests required came back Tuesday morning.

&8220;All six of our coliform bacteria tests came back negative, so we lifted the boil order.&8221;

Chris Soileau, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals engineer in charge of the town&8217;s samples, confirmed the test results.

Soileau said the tests are a yes-or-no test of total coliform in the water, and a negative result means there is no such bacteria in the water.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency&8217;s Web site, total coliforms are a group of generally harmless bacteria that live in soil and water and in animals. Their presence in water indicates the potential presence of fecal contaminants, or E. coli.

The six samples were taken from different parts of the water system. Every month the system is tested using the same six sample areas.

If a test, which takes 18-24 hours to perform, comes back positive, Soileau said the sample is placed under a black light to search for the presence of E. coli.

If the black light test comes back negative, new samples still have to be taken before the system is approved.

Griggs wasn&8217;t surprised the first round of tests came back negative, calling the boil order a precaution taken whenever the system&8217;s pressure drops.

&8220;The water is safe to drink,&8221; he said. &8220;I never did quit drinking it myself.&8221;

Ferriday Mayor Gene Allen said he was happy to have the problem resolved and looked forward to continuing to improve the water system.

The town went dry Thursday night when the main output line from the water plant on U.S. 65/84 burst at the T intersection at the Ridgecrest corporate limit.

The valve was replaced Friday afternoon, but that night the output line was kicked out of the intersection, causing another day of work.

Concordia Water Works lent the city water during its non-peak hours, but from 3 p.m. through the early morning of both Friday and Saturday, the taps were dry.

The water came back on Saturday, but the system had to be re-pressurized, chlorinated and tested for bacteria, which caused the boil order to remain in force until the negative tests came back from the DHH.