Quincy city-wide boil order ends

UPDATE: Quincy Mayor Mike Troup said on Saturday the citywide boil order is no longer in effect. Twenty-four samples of water taken to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency all “came back fine,” Troup said Saturday night.

QUINCY — A boil order has been issued for all City of Quincy water utility customers. The boil order will remain in effect until residents are notified otherwise.

Director of Public Works Jeffrey Conte said the Illinois EPA has given authoring for the boil order because of the size and scale of the break. Water started pouring out of a 24-inch main at the City of Quincy’s water treatment plant after an excavator hit it late Thursday afternoon. City crews worked overnight and the line was capped Friday morning.

“We’ve got the treatment plant back online,” Conte said. “We’re pumping water in as fast as we can.”

Conte said conserving water until further notice would be a good idea.

“It would help,” he said. “We’ve heard about people trying to fill bathtubs and stuff like that, which is not helping. It’s actually slowing us down. If people would just not consume we would fill up a little bit faster, and we can get pressure restored, especially for people on east part of town.”

Conte said the boil order will be at least 24 hours if not longer.

“We need to grab a number of (water) samples around town,” Conte said. “Those will be analyzed for bacteriological results we look at which we use to test for pathogens. Takes a minimum of 24 hours to get those results back. So what we’ve now issued a boil order, and we will be on boil order until it is lifted by the city, and that cannot be lifted until we get documentation that there’s no pathogens in the water.

Jarrod Welch of the Adams County Health Department said restaurants should use best practices when it comes to whether they are open for the rest of Friday.

“Restaurants can’t serve fountain soda or tap water,” Welch said. “We’re trying to avoid cross-contamination, so those who need to must follow the boil order.”

Mayor Mike Troup said the fix is temporary, but water service is still operational.

“They had to cut a piece out, and then we had it machined, and then we brought it back here and they installed it,” Troup said. “And the good thing is, you’re not seeing any other water flushing through there. So it’s holding.”

Photos by Aspen Gengenbacher.