Springfield City Utilities says Boil Water Advisory lifted for all customers

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (Edited News Release/KY3) - Springfield’s City Utilities has fully lifted its Boil Water Advisory Sunday evening after a large water main break on Farm Road 172 in the southeast portion of the city.

The advisory on Saturday first affected roughly 1,200 customers.

By early Sunday, water quality tests allowed CU to lift the advisory for the majority of affected neighbors south of Highway 60.

However, about 150 residents living north of Highway 60 remained under the order.

Keith and Nena Potts, who live near the water main break, say they woke up to no water Saturday morning and were greeted with the sound of rushing water on the road next to their house.

“I was standing on my front deck, I can hear raging water running,” Nena said. “And so I opened the door, and I just said to Keith, ‘Come out here. I think we found our leak.’”

Nena recalls the phone call with CU being the missing piece for the city to locate the source.

“[City Utilities] said, ‘Oh, thanks for calling. I’ve been trying to find this. We’ve had a thousand calls,” Nena said.

Sunday afternoon, most water quality tests came back clean, but one unsatisfactory result initially forced officials to extend the advisory through Monday.

But as of Sunday evening, CU stated the advisory has been lifted for all customers, saying that additional testing is not required.

All repairs are complete, and water quality tests confirmed the water is safe, CU stated.

According to CU, the exact cause of the break is hard to pin down—but shifting soil moisture or drastic temperature changes are the likely culprits.

While the Potts family is grateful to CU for the quick response, they say the sudden outage was a humbling reminder of how fortunate they are.

“It makes you think when you don’t have water, how very fortunate we are as Americans,” Nena said. “As Springfieldians, to have water at our disposal.”

If your water looks cloudy or discolored, CU says to run your faucets for a few minutes until the water runs clear. This may be caused by air in the water lines.

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