People who consume Montello's municipal water no longer need to boil it, Public Works Director Glenn Bucholz said at about 9 a.m. Saturday.

All 24 of the city's most recent water samples -- 12 taken on Thursday, 12 taken on Friday -- were found to be free of the bacteria E. coli after testing at an Appleton laboratory, Bucholz said.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources issued a boil order Wednesday after one random water sample contained E. coli, which lives naturally, and harmlessly, in the intestinal tracts of many warm-blooded mammals. If consumed, however, it can cause diarrhea and other intestinal distress, sometimes fatal.

Bucholz said random samples of water, taken from faucets throughout the city, are tested regularly. E. coli was found in a sample taken Monday, though Bucholz said he suspected from the beginning that the contamination found in the sample did not originate in the water supply, but in the site where the sample was taken.