Residents along Newberry Road may have experienced water inconveniences within the last week.
Gainesville Regional Utilities issued a boil-water notice Wednesday after a main water line malfunctioned in front of North Florida Regional Medical Center, according to a GRU news release.
Out of the 70,000 water customers GRU serves, fewer than 200 residential and business customers were affected. The incident was isolated, and GRU notified all customers impacted, according to the release.
“About 5:30 p.m. our operators noticed a slight drop in pressure,” said Tony Cunningham, a GRU senior environmental engineer. “It was isolated within an hour.”
Cunningham said the water valves were closed immediately to allow water pressure to be restored and then were repaired to get everyone back in service.
“Staff was available for a quick response,” Cunningham said. “We identified an area that had a lower pressure and worked directly with those customers.”
GRU issued a precautionary boil-water notice to those in the affected area. GRU notified people by email that evening and talked with them in person the next the morning, Cunningham said.
By Friday, GRU collected more than 70 water samples, and all results confirmed the water in the area was safe to drink, the release said.
“We had a really strong focus to maintain,” Cunningham said, “and when we got the results back, everything was clear. Nothing was ever wrong with the water.”
Although the precautionary boil-water notice was short-lived, it affected many restaurants along Newberry Road.
“A boil-water notice affects much more than you would think,” said Kevin Morden, assistant manager at Jason’s Deli.
Morden said the restaurant’s soda machine had to be shutdown, and management used about 20 gallon water jugs to wash dishes.
“GRU supplied us with a good deal of ice and gallon jugs of water,” Morden said, “and that helped out a lot.”
