COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. — The City of Colonial Heights lifted its boil water advisory on Saturday afternoon after test results confirmed the drinking water is safe to drink.
The advisory, which was originally issued on Wednesday, was officially lifted at 1:20 p.m. on Saturday. City officials said bacteriological samples collected on Thursday and Friday were tested by a state-certified laboratory and showed no signs of total coliform or E. coli bacteria.
Before resuming normal water use, the city is instructing residents, businesses, and restaurants to complete these steps to ensure fresh water reaches their plumbing systems.
The city provided the following instructions:
- Run all outdoor taps for approximately 10 minutes to bring fresh water from the water main to the property.
- Replace filters in cartridge filtration systems before consuming water.
- Run a regeneration or backwash cycle for water softeners.
- Run all indoor cold-water faucets for one minute, starting with the faucet closest to the water line entry, then moving through lower-level faucets and finally upper-level faucets.
- Clean faucet aerators.
- Run the hot water in a bathtub for 10 minutes to replace water in the hot water heater.
- Dispose of any ice that may have been made while the advisory was in effect.
Anyone with questions or needing additional information can call the city at -804-520-9300 or email publicworks@colonialheightsva.gov.
The advisory was originally issued after a 16-inch water main pipe split in two on Wednesday morning, causing a drop in water pressure and raising concerns about possible contamination.
"This particular issue was a longitudinal split, so a full-length split along the bottom of a PVC Pipe, kind of a random situation," City Engineer Andrew Barnes said.
WATCH: Colonial Heights under boil water advisory after 50-year-old water main ruptures
While waiting for the advisory to be lifted, residents lined up in their cars to receive free cases of bottled water at the Colonial Heights Technical Center.
"Right now, it's not bad, it's an inconvenience," Charles White said. "I hope it goes real quick."
A dance group from Virginia State University arrived Friday morning to help distribute the water to the community.
"We chose to come out here and donate some water. We actually have cases in our cars, we'd like to donate as well as hand out cases of water," Samija Thomas said. "Why not make our community a better place? We live here, so why not put more into our community and help out?"
Colonial Heights Schools Superintendent Dr. Travis Ridley said the district had a plan in place to prepare for school on Monday once the advisory was lifted.
"We'll drain all the ice machines, we'll flush out all the water. We'll make sure everything is in operation within the schools once we get the OK from the city that everything is good to go," Ridley said.
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