Brainerd residents must boil water before using
Residents of Brainerd remain under an order to boil their water — four days after a thunderstorm brought down the city's water system.
Early Thursday, homes and businesses across the city lost water pressure. Minnesota Department of Health tests revealed Friday that the drop in pressure may have opened the door to bacterial contamination.
Brainerd Public Utilities Superintendent Scott Magnuson said crews are in the midst of performing a system-wide disinfecting flush with chlorine. The boil water order is still in effect, but Magnuson hopes to lift it soon.
He said a series of events caused the loss of pressure. The larger of two city water towers was already down for repairs when a water main broke.
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The rupture happened at around 4 a.m. Thursday morning, Magnuson said. It was a 12 inch pipe just outside the city water facility, but took a while to find.
For three hours, plant pumps were able to keep pressure in the system. At 7 a.m., a thunderstorm blew through the area with 70 mph winds, dropping trees through power lines and knocking out city power, including power to the water facility.
By the time crews got power to the water facility, calls were rolling in from homes and restaurants without water.
"It was a total coincidence we lost a water main the same day as the storm," Magnuson said.
Any of these issues, he said, wouldn't have brought down the water system on their own.
The loss of pressure triggered a mandatory boil water order from the Minnesota Department of Health and a battery of bacteria testing.
Friday night, a series of 12 tests found one strain of coliform bacteria. Magnuson said coliform isn't harmful on its own, but is an indicator of worse bacteria like E. coli. "We didn't find any E. coli," he said.
Regardless, any bacteria forces a massive system wide flush with chlorine. It takes days, he said. So for now, the residents and businesses will have to continue boiling their drinking water.