Stuart boil-water order lifted after state lab gives the OK

STUART — The boil-water advisory for all city water customers was lifted Tuesday evening.

A state-certified laboratory testing the water after Monday's malfunction at the water-treatment plant told city officials about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday that the water is safe for consumption, according to a city news release.

This means it is safe for residents and businesses to resume their normal water habits. Under the boil-water advisory, Stuart water customers were ordered to boil their water before using it for drinking and cooking.

Some local businesses and restaurants continued to use the water before the advisory was lifted.

"As long as you run the lines ... for five minutes, everything’s fine," Justin Bauman, kitchen manager at Stuart Coffee Company, said Tuesday morning. “Everything’s fine now." 

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

Several downtown business owners called City Hall Tuesday morning to report they’d been told by a "site inspector" that the water was safe. It’s unclear what agency the site inspector is with, but he or she is unaffiliated with the city, city spokesman Ben Hogarth said.

Bauman said the restaurant had been given instructions that conflict with the city advisory.

“Our boss called the health inspector and he said that everything was OK … so we ran the water lines for about 5 minutes each, threw all the ice away,” Bauman said. "We did everything we had to do to get everything safe again.”

The advisory impacted all of the city's 4,200 accounts — about 17,300 people — until bacteria tests show the water is safe to drink, according to the city.

More:Stuart Fire Rescue veteran Vincent Felicione appointed new fire chief

Stuart's water system may have become contaminated Monday morning after a generator malfunction at the water-treatment plant, according to the city.

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 planned FPL outage was to occur at 10 p.m. Sunday but was canceled because of weather, according to FPL.

The city was notified on Friday of the planned outage but never was told about the cancellation, both FPL officials and Stuart Public Works Director Dave Peters confirmed.

As a result, the city still switched to generator power, and continued to use the generator until the malfunction occurred, at about 7:30 a.m. Monday.

Still, Peters said, the generator should have lasted all night without incident.

"Regardless of what FPL did, the cause of the failure is an electrical breaker causing the generator to fail," Peters said in an email. "When that happened, the high-service pumps that are used to maintain the water-distribution system pressures failed."

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When pressure falls below 20 psi, bacteria can enter the system, according to the city.

Peters said the city has no written protocol about using generator power, and there is no automatic backup system for the generator.

"We're not worried about that," Peters said about running the generator all night. "It's designed to provide auxiliary power in case of an outage, and it worked perfectly all night" until the malfunction.

Some local restaurants took precautions but wouldn't say what they were. 

At Luna restaurant, manager Tim Horton said workers took “all appropriate measures.”

Horton said the boil-water advisory was “precautionary,” not mandatory.

“We’ve taken the appropriate precautions and we’re good to go,” Horton said.

Horton said they opened at their normal 11 a.m.

Horton said the restaurant took some steps behind the scenes, but declined to say what.

The restaurant has been through mandatory boil-water notices before, and it buys gallons and gallons of water.

“We know how to get through it without letting it affect the business,” Horton said.

At Maria’s Café, server Claudine Williams said the restaurant had bought bottled water and would find additional solutions if necessary.

“If we needed ice, we were going to get ice,” Williams said. “We’re just telling people what the deal is.”

Sunil Kayalchirayil, owner of India Palace just west of U.S. 1 at Kanner Highway, said his business is closed on Mondays. He said he wasn’t aware of the notice.

Kayalchirayil said some customers order bottled water, while others get purified tap water.

India Palace patron Tom Tarsia was having a lunch of chicken tandoori, goat curry and a large glass of water. Tarsia said he was unaware of the boil-water notice.

“I’m thinking about it right now,” Tarsia said of the water. “I’ll probably get a Diet Coke now.”

The water situation didn't seem to create any problems for the three schools within the city of Stuart, school officials said Tuesday.

The district put out water coolers for students at J.D. Parker Elementary, Stuart Middle School and Spectrum Junior/Senior High School, school officials said.

A shipment of 50 five-gallon water jugs arrived on Tuesday to keep the schools supplied, school officials said.

Reporter Andrew Atterbury contributed to this report.