MEMPHIS, Tenn — MLGW customers can rejoice, the precautionary boil water advisory issued last week was lifted Thursday.
The utility company is still asking customers to conserve water until Friday at 10 a.m.
It’s been a week since we’ve been able to take a sip up water straight from the tap and customers and restaurants are happy to see hear the good news.
“We have been in touch with the state,” said MLGW President JT Young. “Our lab has been engaged in testing, those tests have all come back with no contamination. We’ve not had any issues with any of the testing.”
Young announced that the precautionary boil water advisory for customers would be lifted effective immediately.
Now that the advisory is lifted you’re asked to flush water faucets for two minutes starting upstairs, flush all appliances connected to the water line, like refrigerators and dump ice from ice makers.
If water is discolored let it run until clear.
MLGW said it is above it’s minimum pressure range. The boil water advisory went into effect due to lower water pressure and broken water mains after severe cold weather.
MLGW reported 135 water mains ruptured. Fourteen still need to be repaired.
Young asked customers to give the company time to set up an adjustment process if they see an increase in their bills.
Memphis Restaurant Association President Mike Miller said restaurant owners like himself are thankful the advisory is lifted.
“A lot of us chose to take a wait-and-see attitude,” said Milled. “I know there were a number of folks opted to stay closed because of the complications of the boil water order.”
For those who stayed opened there was the added step of boiling all water and offering bottled water.
“It’s a relief not have to deal with that,” said Miller. “It’s a tough business to deal with on a day-to-day basis as is.”
Meanwhile Young said they have a multi-year plan in the works they hope will prevent this from happening again.
“Our capital plan around our water infrastructure improvement over 5 years is about 186 million dollars.”