A water main broke Tuesday afternoon in Newberry causing a precautionary boil-water notice for the city.
Construction on the 25400 block of Southwest 15th Avenue caused the break, said Blaine Suggs, the utilities director for Newberry. Water was completely shut off for four hours.
A rolling boil of one minute is sufficient, and Suggs said the ban won’t be lifted until the city receives test results.
“In order for the notice to end, water samples have to be sent to a state-certified lab for bacteriological clearance,” Suggs said.
Suggs said the city sent a code-red alert out to residents about the precautionary boil-water notice.
“The same process will be used to alert all residents as soon as the water is safe to use again,” he said.
Suggs said it’s unknown how much water spilled out during the break.
“It disrupts their life, naturally,” Suggs said. “People want to know when they can start using the water to cook again.”
Nareth Meth, owner of Cilantro Taco in Newberry, said the notice affected business.
“We’ve been buying ice from Sam’s Club for the past few days,” Meth said. “I’ve seen some decline in customers over the last few days because of this.”
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 9/18/2014 under the headline "Precautionary boil-water notice in City of Newberry"]
