With Mayor Dave Cieslewicz calling Monday for better communication on drinking water issues, confusion reigned regarding two manganese health advisories.

While the Madison Water Utility and the Madison-Dane County Health Department contradicted each other as to when the health advisories were to be in effect, on Monday city officials promised to clear the whole thing up with a series of postcards.

The Madison Water Utility recommended last week that infants and people with liver disease served by well No. 10 on Madison's West Side not drink tap water during the eight weeks the area's pipes are being flushed, between June 5 to about Aug. 1.

At the same time, information from the mayor's office and from the director of public health for Madison and Dane County seemed to indicate that the health advisory applies for a longer period of time - until later in August when an analysis of tests from homes in affected areas is completed.

"Yes, it's confusing," said Dr. Thomas Schlenker, public health director. "And I guess this needs to be rectified if people are getting confused about it."

The message now, health and city officials say, is that the advisory for well No. 10 will be in effect from June 5, when the well is restarted, until test results are available, probably in early August.

The advisory for well No. 3 is currently in effect and will be until test results show the water is safe.

Conflicting recommendations also appear on the Madison Water Utility Web site. The page has links to a postcard- which has already been mailed and arrived at many homes served by well No. 10 on Saturday - and to the health advisory from Schlenker, with the recommendation for what would seem to be a longer time than the postcard advises.

That advisory from Schlelnker recommends that people with liver problems and infants 6 months and younger who live in areas served by wells No. 3 and No. 10 not drink tap water until the post- flushing analysis of manganese levels in each area is complete.

Research has shown that manganese in drinking water, if consumed at high levels for long periods of time, can cause neurological problems. Infants 0 to 6 months who are being fed formula made with manganese-tainted water and people with liver problems, who can't properly process manganese, are most susceptible, perhaps even during shorter periods of exposure.

Much of the confusion over the length of the advisory arose over just when the information from the post-flushing analysis is going to be available.

Information from the water utility passed out at the mayor's news conference Monday indicated sampling would happen through Aug. 25, considerably beyond the Aug. 1 date on the utility's health advisory postcard.

By late Monday, however, Janet Piraino, the mayor's chief of staff, and David Denig- Chakroff, general manager of the water utility, were saying that test results for the well No. 10 area should be available by Aug. 1, which would make the recommendation on the postcard correct.

"Wording on the notice is probably not as clear as it should be," Denig-Chakroff said. "It could have been worded better."

Piraino said city officials decided during the day Monday that the best way to clear up any potential confusion is to mail out a second round of postcards when sampling in the well No. 10 area is completed and a decision has been made on whether to extend the advisory.

Denig-Chakroff said the mailings cost between $2,000 and $3,000.

As for areas served by well No. 3, on Madison's near East Side, flushing is going on right now and it remains unclear exactly when results of testing in those neighborhoods will be available and the health advisory lifted. It remains in effect now as flushing is being completed.

The manganese flushing schedule released Monday indicates sampling in those neighborhoods will continue until about June 30.

But George Twigg, a spokesman for the mayor's office, said results might be available sooner in those areas, too. The results may be available as soon as early June, Twigg said.

He said postcards are being mailed this week to residents served by well No. 3 indicating how long the health advisory is likely to last.

"Based on what happened today," Twigg said, "we want to make sure the language is correct."

The confusion over the advisories was hardly a welcome development on the very day that Cieslewicz publicly released his plan for correcting the city's water woes.

In a press release Monday, mayoral candidate Ray Allen criticized Cieslewicz for not addressing problems sooner.

Monday's confusion didn't surprise Joe Sweeney, who lives a couple of blocks from East High School and is served by well No. 3.

He said few people in the neighborhoods served by the manganese-plagued well are clear on the advisories.

He and his family, including a 10-month-old child, are drinking only bottled water. But he knows many neighbors who continue to drink tap water, even during the flushing of the mains and even though they have infants.

Many in the neighborhood have been calling the city about water problems for two years or more, Sweeney said, and have received no help. He said he is wary of promises, from the utility or the mayor.

"There needs to be some really good response here," Sweeney said. "Not just spoken words."