Florence lifts water boil advisory

The town of Florence has lifted the water boil advisory it issued Wednesday after a water main break resulted in a system outage.

"We are pleased to inform you that all water samples have come back negative, and the boil water advisory has been lifted," the town stated in a Facebook post.

The break near Main and 22nd streets caused an outage that affected all areas south of the Gila River, including some Pinal County government offices.

On Thursday, the town stated that the advisory "was put in place as a precautionary measure to ensure public health and safety. No known contaminants were introduced into the system and the likelihood (that) contaminants are present is low."

Water samples were collected and submitted to a lab on Thursday.

While repairing the water main break, the town's public works department determined that a systemwide shut down was needed because the repair area could not be isolated.

As town crews completed repairs and water service was restored, the work caused a loss of pressure in the system that could have allowed contaminants to enter the distribution system.

“While these conditions may pose a significant health risk to those served by the system, we are taking all necessary steps to reduce and eliminate these risks and protect the health and safety of those served by the system,” the town stated on Thursday.

Residents were being advised to boil water before ingesting it.

The specific segment of the system that was repaired was disinfected before being put back into service.

For information, residents can contact Timm Wainscott at 520-251-2131 or at Timm.wainscott@florenceaz.gov .