Columbia water clean, city says; boil water notice lifted citywide

All areas served by the city of Columbia’s water system no longer need to boil their water prior to drinking or cooking as of 4 p.m. Wednesday, officials say.

Most of the city’s 375,000 customers have been boiling water since Sunday, Oct. 4. About one-third of them, in the northwest area of Richland County stretching into Lexington County, have been off the boil-water notice for several days.

Broken lines and a breach in downtown’s Columbia Canal amid record flooding compromised the integrity of the system, officials said.

The water in the canal, which serves as a reservoir for downtown’s water treatment plant that serves 188,000 customers, was contained by a boulder dam at 6 p.m. Monday. Repairs to lines were ongoing and were finished today, officials said.

What Now?

Customers should flush all of their faucets for about 30 seconds or so and empty any ice trays made from water during this advisory.

Customers with automatic ice-makers may want to continue disposing of their ice until they are sure the lines serving their ice-makers are clear.

This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 4:13 PM.