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A boil advisory prompted by a downtown water-main break Thursday has a lot of people asking when it will end. Christie Barnhart of Missouri American Water says it shouldn’t last much past Friday night.
“We have got samples that are processing currently,” Barnhart said . “We are very confident that the advisory will be lifted tonight around 10:30 p.m.”
On Friday morning, some water could still be seen rising through the pavement near Sixth and Edmond Streets. One lane of Edmond Street was closed at the intersection. Thursday afternoon we counted more than two dozen small water spouts in the pavement, the sidewalks and the landscaping in the area (see video below).
Barnhart points out that as of Friday morning, no contamination had been detected.
“With a precautionary advisory, we issue those when we see a pressure drop in our water system,” she said. “Often times, as in yesterday, those are caused by when we have water pipes break underground, and this was an eight inch pipe, so that’s a pretty good sized pipe to break.”
Barnhart said the broken, eight-inch water pipe did cause a drop in pressure, which prompted the advisory as a precautionary measure.
“We do not have any evidence of contamination,” she said. “If we did, we would have issued a boil order.”
“But we do want to protect everyone, so we do ask that as a precautionary measure they continue to boil the water before drinking or cooking until this is lifted.”
The St. Joseph School District canceled classes Friday because of the water issues across much of St. Joseph. Barnhart said what the school district did is standard with what she sees across Missouri.
Barnhart advises you to bring your water to a rolling boil for three minutes before using it for drinking or cooking. Tap water is okay for washing and bathing.
As we reported, water was oozing into the street from multiple sources Thursday afternoon, as shown in this video.