Stuart water customers could be on boil-water notice for the rest of the week

STUART — The city water system may have become contaminated Monday morning, and officials have ordered all customers — residents and businesses alike — to boil their water before using it for drinking and cooking.

The potential contamination, however, may have been as much a communication breakdown as a failure of the city equipment.

The city planned to use a backup generator during a scheduled Florida Power & Light Co. outage, but, according to FPL, that work never occurred and the power never went out.

The boil-water notice will be in effect for the city's 4,200 accounts, about 17,300 people, "probably (for) the rest of the work week" until bacteria tests show the water is safe to drink, said city spokesman Ben Hogarth.

The planned FPL outage was to occur at 10 p.m. Sunday but was canceled because of weather, said Richard Gibbs, FPL spokesman.

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The city, however, still switched to generator power, Hogarth said.

“The generator ran all night. … We were still on generator at the time the (generator) failure happened,” Hogarth said.

Hogarth said he did not know if FPL notified the city that the planned outage had been canceled.

Gibbs said FPL typically provides information about updates to planned outages, but could not immediately say whether FPL had contacted Stuart.

“We’re in the process of trying to figure out what went wrong,” Hogarth said. “This is a very freak thing.”

When the generator at Stuart’s water-treatment facility on Palm Beach Road malfunctioned, it allowed water pressure to drop, Hogarth said.

When pressure falls below 20 psi, bacteria can enter the system. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection ordered a precautionary boil-water notice.

School officials on Monday already were preparing to provide bottled water for students and staff for the rest of the week.

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Only three Martin County schools are on Stuart's water system: J.D. Parker Elementary, Stuart Middle School and Spectrum Junior/Senior High School, officials said.

While the school district will provide water to these campuses, school officials recommend parents give their children a bottle of water to bring to school until the advisory is lifted.

School staff will put water coolers throughout these campuses, and the district will dip into its hurricane supplies for water because deliveries won’t be available until Thursday, school officials said.

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Food service should be unaffected by the boil-water notice, school officials said, because any water used for meal preparation will be boiled first.

Martin Health System has contingency plans for situations like this, spokesman Scott Samples said Monday.

Twelve locations — including Martin Medical Center, some offices and some outpatient locations — are affected, Samples said. Warning signs were posted at water fountains and bottled water is being provided, he said.

Until an all-clear is issued, Stuart officials said, all water from the city system should be brought to a rolling boil for one minute before drinking it or using it for cooking.

The order includes water used for brushing teeth, washing fruit and making ice.

Reporter Andrew Atterbury contributed to this report.