Stuart businesses impacted after boil water advisory

STUART, Fla. (CBS12) — There’s a first time for everything.

The City of Stuart was under a precautionary boil water advisory Monday and Tuesday. Ben Hogarth, the city’s public information officer, said this is the first time the city has had a situation like this.

On Monday, they were notified the water pressure dropped below 20 psi at the water treatment plant.

“When they drop below that threshold there's a possibility for contamination,” Hogarth said.

That’s why they put the entire city on a precautionary boil water advisory. Typically, a localized area is out on the advisory but Hogarth said since it happened at the plant, the entire city had to be placed on the advisory. The advisory was lifted on Tuesday when tests showed there was no contamination.

All they know right now is a generator failed at some point and there was a breaker issue.

“We’re investigating what happened with the breaker and the generator and that's our number one priority right now,” Hogarth said.

He said this was a big learning experience for them because they had some issues trying to notify everyone in the community. At the time the advisory went into effect, Hogarth said they didn’t know they could use the emergency 911 notification for the city residents and workers. They utilized it when the advisory was lifted but not when it went into effect.

“When we first had the advisory we didn't know we had that option,” Hogarth said.

So their office was flooded with calls from businesses throughout the city.

"We had a lot of assisted living facilities that were concerned for their residents," Hogarth said. "With this kind of advisory the folks in the most possible danger are those with immune deficiencies and are sick.”

They also got numerous calls from restaurants in the area. One was Importico’s Bakery, who found out about the advisory from their landlord.

“That was nice because otherwise we wouldn't have known until it may have been too late,” said Carol Importico, the owner of Importico’s Bakery.

She said they didn’t make coffee on Tuesday and just emptied it out on Monday at her locations within the city limits and outside of the city limits until she talked with officials and got all the proper information.

Importico woke up early Wednesday morning to make sure her customers got what they wanted.

“I have another cafe on Dixie Highway," she said. "They were safe, as far as water, so I was gonna brew coffee over there and then bring it over here on to Colorado Avenue.”

She’s had this bakery for 15 years and said nothing like this has ever happened before. She said most customers were understanding, but others wanted their coffee fix.

“Thank goodness it was only one day,” Importico said.