St. Stephen residents, businesses still boiling their water after nearly 2 weeks

A boil water order for St. Stephen remains in effect after an initial notice was issued nearly two weeks ago, making things difficult for a local restaurant. 

A water quality alert was first sent out on Feb. 8.

Suzie Hossack, the owner and manager at Carman's Diner in St. Stephen, said the boil water order has changed things for her business. 

Besides the extra time and effort it takes to boil water used in the kitchen, Hossack said the diner has had to stop serving ice water to every customer when they come in.

"That's unfortunate because our regular customers have come to expect that," she said. "So now we are just buying bottles of water and selling it."

As a business owner, there's an extra responsibility because, "we're inviting the public into our domain, and we don't want to cause any sickness," Hossack said.

According to an update posted Wednesday, the municipality is continuing to work with "outside expertise" on identifying and repairing a pump failure at the Maxwell Crossing water treatment plant.

"The inclement weather and temperatures have made this work additionally challenging," the update said.

It says operational changes were implemented Wednesday to isolate the problem, which meant water testing could begin. A sample was taken Wednesday, and another sample is expected to be taken on Thursday.

If both come back normal, the order could be lifted, but residents can expect it to remain in effect until at least Friday, the update says. 

According to the Government of New Brunswick's information on boil water advisories, they are issued for a number of reasons, including unacceptable levels of E. coli, unacceptable levels of turbidity also known as cloudiness, or as a precautionary measure if there is a risk of contamination because of planned maintenance or equipment malfunction. 

Water needs to be brought to a rolling boil for one minute to kill potentially disease-causing microbes.