CFPUA lifts ‘Do Not Drink’ alert, boil water advisory in effect

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Cape Fear Public Utility Authority has lifted its “Do Not Drink” alert, hours after water from the Richardson Nano Groundwater Treatment Plant showed an overabundance of fluoride.

Thousands of CFPUA customers could not use their water today, making a typical morning routine more difficult.

“They paint fluoride on the kids teeth at the dentist, why do we still need in the water,” CFPUA customer Tamera Nelson said.

Nelson lives in a neighborhood that was impacted by the water alert. She said she received a phone call around 7:00 a.m. Wednesday.

“It’s the one thing we can’t opt out of. I mean legally you can’t even take off the system and drill your own well. I don’t understand that,” Nelson said.

According to a post on CFPUA, a central area in the service area is under a precautionary boil water advisory.

CFPUA crews flushed the system, continue to sample, and are making positive progress.
The water customers of Cape Fear Public Utility Authority in the areas in the map below will be experiencing periods of low pressure and outages in the distribution system:
* All of the North Chase area
* All of Murrayville
* All of the Torchwood and surrounding area

This map shows customers originally impacted by the “Do Not Drink” alert.

(Photo: CFPUA)

This map is the specific area in the Richardson Nano Groundwater system under the boil water advisory.

(Photo: CFPUA)

For customers in those areas, CFPUA advises residents to boil their drinking water once service returns.

“Just a smaller area for the boil water advisory and that is not because of the fluoride, but it’s because of the excessive flushing that we did and the pressure got low in the system,” CFPUA Engineering Director Carel Vandermeyden said.

Customers in other parts of CFPUA service areas are not affected and do not need to boil their water.

Periods of low or no pressure in the distribution system increase the potential for back siphonage and the introduction of bacteria into the water system. CFPUA customers in the above-described area are asked to boil their water for one minute, allow it to cool before consumption, and store the cooled water in a clean container with a cover. Customers can also utilize another water source such as bottled water.

Affected customers should use boiled water that has cooled or bottled water for:

•Drinking
•Brushing teeth
•Washing fruits and vegetables
•Preparing food and baby formula
•Making ice
•Giving to pets

Customers do NOT need to boil water before using it for showering or bathing.

The CFPUA is working diligently to complete this work with minimal disruption. The resulting Precautionary Boil Water Advisory shall be in effect until water quality testing has occurred and service is returned to normal.

When testing is completed, typically within 24 hours, and service is returned to normal, the advisory will be lifted.

“I hope they can get things together and make this right because not everyone can afford to buy bottled water and not everyone can afford to drill their own well, but it would be nice if we weren’t legally bound to bad water,” Nelson said.