NORTH LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A water boil advisory is in effect for the City of North Lauderdale, affecting thousands of residents.
On Thursday, city leaders asked residents to begin boiling their water as a precautionary measure following a testing error identified at their local water testing lab.
Officials said the Florida Department of Environmental Protection alerted them that one of their routine water tests in the city came back positive for e coli. But then a second test came back negative.
“Our staff reached out to the lab company that does our water testing. They admitted that the first test was an error. The more stringent test they did resulted in a negative test. However, both tests were reported to the state, and the state ordered a precautionary boil water order,” said North Lauderdale City Manager Michael Sargis.
Due to the inconsistency, local officials are urging residents to boil their water for at least a minute before using it for drinking, cooking, making ice, brushing teeth, or washing dishes.
This impacts between 30,000 and 35,000 water customers in the city.
Officials posted the advisory information on social media and explained what water customers need to do! They say they are doing this to be transparent and to be safe.
“We notified the restaurants, the grocery stores. We’ve put out almost 26,000 phone calls to our residents, all the means to try to get the word out to residents that we’re in a precautionary water boil notice.”
The order is in effect until Saturday.
Once that boil order is lifted, officials say they will send out robocalls and post alerts on the city website and social media.
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