Author: jsellers

Effective immediately, as of 9:30 am 10/11/16, the boil water advisory put in place for St. Simons Island has been lifted. No further bacterial threat is posed in relation to water distribution system repairs necessitated by damages resulting from Hurricane Matthew.

Fifteen sample sites were tested over a twenty-four hour period as required by law and all resulted as negative for any contaminants. Water can be consumed directly from service connections on St. Simons Island without boiling. All service connections in Brunswick have been found to have been unaffected by the outage.

Water in your home may still be stagnant or discolored. Plus flush at least one tap inside your home for a few minutes, or until any unusual cloudiness disappears.

DRINKING WATER WARNING

The St. Simons Island water system lost pressure in the water distribution system

BOIL YOUR WATER FOR THREE MINUTES BEFORE USING

The St. Simons Island water system was shut down on October 7^th, 2016 due to distribution system damages sustained during Hurricane Matthew. This led to a loss of pressure in the distribution system, which may cause back-pressure, back-siphonage, or a net movement of water from outside the pipe to the inside through cracks, breaks, or joints in the distribution system that are common in all water systems.  Such a system failure carries with it a high potential that fecal contamination or other disease-causing organisms could enter the water distribution system.  These conditions may pose an imminent and substantial health endangerment to persons served by the water system.

What should I do?

• DO NOT DRINK THE WATER WITHOUT BOILING IT FIRST. Bring all water to a rolling boil for at least (3) three minutes, and let it cool before using, or use bottled water. Boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing dishes, and food preparation until further notice. Boiling kills bacteria and other organisms in the water. ALL STORED WATER, DRINK OR ICE MADE RECENTLY FROM THIS SUPPLY SHALL BE DISCARDED.
• Bathing, showering and toilet flushing may be performed using water from the tap without boiling it first.
• Inadequately treated water may contain disease-causing organisms. These organisms include bacteria, viruses, and parasites which can cause symptoms such as diarrhea, cramps, nausea, headaches, or other symptoms. They may pose a special health risk for infants, young children, some of the elderly and people with severely compromised immune systems.
• The symptoms above are not caused only by organisms in drinking water. If you experience any of these symptoms and they persist, you may want to seek medical advice. People at increased risk should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers.

What happened? What is being done?

At this time, power outages at our water testing lab as well as the water distribution system on St. Simons Island make immediate resolution of the problem impossible. As power is restored to critical infrastructure, crews will determine what sections of the system must be isolated for repair. Once repairs have been made or irreparable sections isolated by valve, water samples will be taken for evaluation.

We will inform you when you no longer need to boil your water by posting an update here on our website: http://www.bgjwsc.org.

This notice is being sent to you by the Water Production Division of the BGJWSC.

Water System ID#: 1270001

Date distributed: 10/8/16 5:47 PM