Atlantic City under an advisory to boil water Sunday, too
Neighboring towns are not affected because they have their own water supplies.
Atlantic City is under an advisory to boil water on Sunday, too, after the city’s municipal services discovered cloudiness in the water supply Friday night.
The advisory is expected to remain in effect at least through the weekend. According to the Atlantic City Municipal Utilities Authority, the advisory affects only Atlantic City; neighboring towns have different water supply sources.
On Friday, the ACMUA’s routine testing of the water supply discovered “turbidity” levels that were 1.5 times greater than the acceptable standard. Excessive turbidity means an increased chance that the water may contain disease-causing bacteria, virus, or parasites. It is most common that these organisms can cause symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, and headaches.
Boiling water is an effective strategy to kill these disease-causing organisms. The ACMUA recommends that Atlantic City residents boil all water for drinking, making ice, preparing food, washing dishes, or brushing teeth for at least one minute before it is cooled and then used.
During a news conference late Saturday afternoon, Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. said city officials had received permission from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to begin testing samples of its water supply.
Lab tests on those samples were expected to take about 18 hours to yield results.
“So, we are extremely, and cautiously, optimistic,” Small said, “that, hopefully sometime [Sunday] afternoon, the boil water advisory will be lifted, and things can return back to normal.”
Small said 500 cases of water bottles were being made available to Atlantic City residents.
He instructed those who live in the city’s Uptown area to pick up water bottles at a fire station at Maryland and Atlantic Avenues, and residents of the city’s Downtown area to head to a fire station at California and Atlantic Avenues.
AtlantiCare’s three facilities in the city, meanwhile, have put emergency management protocols in place and are monitoring the situation, but have not noticed a rise in patients with symptoms related to drinking dirty water.
“We have shifted to bottled water, packaged ice, and other water disruption protocols to meet the needs of patients and staff. We have not experienced an influx of patients presenting with any related symptoms,” AtlantiCare spokesperson Emily E. Paul wrote in an email.
To clear the turbid water, the ACMUA had to flush out its supply and continue testing.
Small said Saturday that the Department of Environmental Protection was satisfied with the results of a 1:30 a.m. flushing of the water supply system.
Once the water has returned to an acceptable turbidity level, the ACMUA will notify residents that boiling water is no longer necessary. Residents can stay up to date on the water supply at www.acnj.gov.