WSET.com - ABC13Lynchburg "Boil Water" Notice Lifted

Reporter: Melinda Zosh

Update 11:30 a.m. Sunday: We've confirmed with the Water Resources Dept. that the boiling water notice has been lifted. 

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Lynchburg, VA - A warning on Saturday for some in Lynchburg. Don't drink your tap water for the next several hours without boiling it first.

The Department of water resources is still trying to control a water main break.

We've learned Saturday that the break happened on Liberty University's campus after contractors accidentally struck one of the city's main lines.

Hundreds of people and dozens of businesses needing to now boil their water from a large chunk of Wards Road on the Fort Ave to Atlanta Ave side and even the River Ridge Mall.

At Planet Fitness, no drinking water was turning into a big problem, because member Brittany Davis is in desperate need of water.

"After you sweat and work out everyone comes to the water fountain, and now we can't have it," Davis said.

"We have people that need to shower, people that need to drink the water; we have people that are washing their hands and we have the bathrooms," said Shawn Bergin, Assistant Manager of Planet Fitness.

 "You can bathe in it. you just don't want to ingest the water," said Assistant Director for the Dept. of Water Resources Greg Poff. 

So environmental health manager Steve Simpson explains why the water fountains especially are off limits.

"Some diseases like salmonella, e. coli, that kind of thing could be transmitted in water," Simpson said. 

Despite warnings, some people are still drinking the water. That's not advised, because if the water's contaminated you could get stomach or intestine problems.

"I drank the water this morning and I didn't know anything about it so I'm a little concerned," said Angie White. "I just hope I don't get sick."

"Boiling a lot of water for drinking, there's a lot of labor involved in that," Simpson said. 

If you can't boil the water, buy some bottles of it. In the mean time, the city's water resources departments flushing out the water and taking several samples.

"We're hopeful that the samples are going to come out fine. Our preliminary indications are that everything's cleared up pretty well," said Poff.

"If the samples come back clean, then we can lift the advisory," Simpson said. 

"We need as much water as we can get every day. as far as that goes it is what it is. Hopefully it won't happen again," Bergin said.