Water service now
back to normal

By JEFFERSON WEAVER

Residents can bathe, wash clothes and drink the water again in Riegelwood.

Steve Lanier of the Riegelwood Sanitary District said Tuesday that water was back on for all the system’s 200-plus customers, but a boil water order remained in effect until Wednesday. That was lifted shortly before noon, he said.

“We needed to run one more set of tests,” he said. “The results came back quicker than we thought, and everything is OK.”

Lanier said a piece of heavy equipment broke a water line Aug. 22, and a number of leaks in the system drew down water supplies even after repairs were made.

“The leaks were just outrunning us,” he said. “The first time we shut down was from the break, but when that was fixed, we kept finding other problems.”

Operations at International Paper were not affected.

“This was only the potable water supply,” Lanier said. “The processed water supply didn’t have any problems.”

Kimberly Gill, a spokeswoman for International Paper, said the now-rescinded boil order was issued by the state Division of Environmental Health.