Elliot Lake remains under city-wide boil water advisory

City officials in Elliot Lake, Ont., confirm that repairs to the water line on Hillside Drive North have been completed and water has been restored to all homes – however, a boil water advisory remains in effect for the entire city.

The damage to the line occurred during excavation work tied to the Hillside Drive North repair project.

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Shortly after the event occurred, the city’s emergency crews began work.

“The Emergency Operations Centre was assembled and steps were taken to notify the public and facilitate the repair which was completed at roughly 6:30 p.m. on Thursday by the city’s Public Works team,” the city said in a news release Friday.

“While repairs are completed, a boil water advisory will continue until further notice.”

In the event of a water main break, water testing must be completed over several days and the city is awaiting lab results from both Algoma Public Health and the Ministry of Natural Resources before the boil water advisory can be lifted. 

City officials told CTV News that advisories are normally localized to the area where the break occurred, but as this break impacted the entirety of Elliot Lake, so the advisory is city-wide.

"When water main breaks occur they tend to be in isolated areas and don’t tend to have the city impact that yesterday's (Thursday’s) water main break,” said the city’s CAO Rob DeBortoli.

“In those cases, the boil water advisory is restricted to the areas impacted by the break – but because (the) break impacted areas throughout the community, we had no choice but to put the advisory on the whole community."

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The advisory includes using water for drinking, brushing your teeth, washing food and drinking from public fountains.

Residents are being advised to bring water to a rolling boil for at least one minute and allow it to cool before using.

DeBortoli thanked residents for their cooperation, in the news release.

“Please stay tuned to the City of Elliot Lake website and social media pages for the most up-to-date information,” officials said.

With files from CTVNorthernOntario.ca journalist Amanda Hicks