Boil order lifted early after water plant floods

HANNIBAL, Mo. (WGEM) - Utility officials lifted a boil order Thursday afternoon at 4:20 p.m. for residents in and around Hannibal. The boil order for customers of the Ralls County Public Water Supply district will remain in place until Friday at 1 p.m.

BPW customers and PWSD residents were asked Monday to begin conserving water after the basement in the treatment plant flooded Sunday afternoon. The conservation warning was lifted Wednesday morning at 8 a.m.

Monday afternoon, PWSD and BPW issued a boil order for all customers in the service territories through Wednesday at 1 p.m. That order was extended Tuesday, when officials said the boil order would expire Friday at 1 p.m., but after all bacterial testing came back clear, BPW officials lifted the boil order early.

"Residents are now free to use water as they normally would," Kari Goodman, of BPW said. "However, some customers are experiencing dirty water, so please be mindful when doing laundry."

An update on BPW's website said water levels were back to normal in the water treatment plant and system tanks Wednesday morning.

"So anything that we cooked today, we used boiled water on and then for our dinner tonight we're making sure that we even boiled our coffee and tea to make sure we took care of that matter," Executive Director Debbie Catlett said. Ice was another concern for Catlett. So much so, workers went to a gas station to get enough for the day. Resident Tony Weldy said even he didn't fully understand how much water he used until Monday.

"I do realize it, but I don't realize what all you need clean water for, I guess sometimes, so washing dishes in the dishwasher even or even taking a bath or shower," Weldy said. BPW Director of Operations Heath Hall still isn't sure how this happened, but the department is already trying to figure out ways to make sure they don't find themselves in this situation again.

"We have several ideas in the works on how to prevent this from happening again, from putting some extra alarms in, to raising the motors up even higher," Hall said. "There are several things in the works, so we're going to try. Many of them very cheap."

Catlett said it's a wakeup call for anyone who takes their drinking water for granted.

"It's terrifying to think about it," Catlett said. "We all count on it, we're all so used to it. We're not ready for it really so we're all just going to have to do our best."

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Boil order lifted early after water plant floods