Governor Ritter says he is impressed with the response to a salmonella outbreak in Alamosa.

The Governor toured the town Sunday, a day after he declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard to help distribute drinking water.

It could be as much as three weeks before Alamosa residents can drink water straight from the tap, after health officials linked the outbreak with the water system.

Officials plan to flush the water system with a chlorine solution on Tuesday.

Ritter says officials are using a reverse-911 system to call residents and plan to leaflet ever home and business on Sunday to warn of the system flush.

As of Friday, 163 cases of salmonella were linked to the outbreak had been reported in people from infancy to age 89. Of those, 47 were confirmed by lab testing, and nine of them have been hospitalized.