Apr. 28--The Metropolitan District Commission lifted the six-day-long advisory on drinking water Monday and acknowledged that the filters at the reservoir in question are out of date and in need of repair.

In fact, a contract to rebuild parts of the water treatment plant in Bloomfield, including the antiquated filter system, was in place well before microorganisms floated through the filters sometime before April 20, prompting an areawide advisory to boil drinking and cooking water.

It was not clear when the construction work would start. In the meantime, MDC officials are taking steps to avoid the possibility of further contamination, including running the plant 24 hours a day and maintaining elevated levels of chlorine.

The water advisory for Hartford, West Hartford, Bloomfield, Windsor and parts of East Granby and Windsor Locks was lifted Monday after test results were negative for fecal contamination and pathogens. Officials had to rule out the presence of those contaminants after copepods and rotifers, which themselves are harmless to humans, were found by a Bloomfield resident in his water filter on April 20.

The state Department of Public Health conferred with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control on Monday before clearing the MDC to lift the advisory. The original notice was issued April 22, two days after the Bloomfield resident reported his discovery to the utility.

At its widest, the advisory covered tens of thousands of residential and business customers in 10 communities. For the first time in nearly a week, schools can now take the plastic covers off water fountains, hospitals can stow the gallon jugs of water that were supplying medical units and patient rooms, and restaurants can put the water glasses back on the tables.

Tests showed no sign of infectious giardia or cryptosporidium, or fecal E. coli or coliform, and a mountain of MDC monitoring data "was all exactly where we'd want it to be to assure a safe public drinking-water supply," Darrell Smith, supervisor of the state health department's drinking-water section, said Monday.

Meanwhile, MDC officials confirmed Monday that the utility had already signed a contract with a construction company before the outbreak to replace the filters at the water authority's Reservoir No. 6.

Reached Monday evening, Stephen Pratt, assistant manager of water treatment and quality at the MDC, said the contract had been in place "awhile," but he did not know the date it was signed.