St. Stephen boil water advisory continues for a third day

By Brian Owens, The Courier 

Residents of St. Stephen are advised to continue boiling their water before drinking or using it to prepare food.

The advisory was first issued Saturday morning due to turbidity (cloudiness) in the municipal water supply, which indicated it may be unsafe to drink and could cause serious illness.

The turbidity was caused by ongoing repairs to the pumping system at the water source, according to an alert sent out by the town. The advisory is expected to remain in place for 3-5 days. A further update is expected by Tuesday morning.

In 2023, an infrastructure failure at the town’s main well led to a boil water advisory that was in place for more than a week, also due to turbidity. It is not clear whether the repairs that led to the current advisory are related to that issue.

Jeff Renaud, the town’s chief administrative officer, did not respond to requests for comment.

During a boil water advisory any water to be used for cooking, drinking, food preparation, making ice, or brushing teeth should be brought to a rolling boil for one minute.

It is generally not necessary to boil water for bathing, showering, laundry or washing dishes, though you should take care not to swallow any water while bathing or showering.

Local businesses and institutions affected by the advisory are making do the best they can.

“It hasn’t been too bad, except we can’t use our ice machine or serve tap water,” said Mary Cunningham, owner of the Border Café.

The café’s coffee machines reach a high enough temperature that they can continue to be used as normal, she added, and the lack of ice is less of an issue in February than it would be in July.

“If it was summer we’d probably have to be buying sacks of ice,” she said.

At a quieter-than-usual Carman’s Diner at lunchtime on Monday, server Nicki Lemay said business had been slow, but was not sure whether that was related to the water issues. The staff had been hard pressed to boil enough water to keep the coffee flowing on Sunday morning, she said.

“It’s extra work but we’re persevering,” she said. “This isn’t the first time we’ve had to deal with it.”

Carman’s has bottled water available for drinking, but they are trying to avoid clearing out all of the stock from local stores so that there is enough for the rest of the community, said Lemay.

St. Stephen High School advised students to bring full bottles of safe drinking water with them to school until further notice, and temporary water coolers will be available at the school for refilling.

Horizon Health Network said in an email statement it has put the necessary interventions in place at the Charlotte County Hospital. (CCH).

“Signage has been placed throughout the facility for awareness and bottled drinking water has been made available for patient and staff consumption,” the email said. “All clinical treatments that involve water such as dialysis have been evaluated to ensure safety. As a standard of care, CCH has a water filtration and purification system for the administration of dialysis.”

It is continuing to monitor the boil water advisory and ensure necessary measures are in place until it has been lifted.