Fort Mill water is safe to drink as town lifts boil water advisory

The water coming out of Fort Mill taps is now safe to drink again.

Just before noon Friday, the town announced a boil water advisory has been lifted after third-party water quality tests from the prior morning showed there isn’t bacteria in the municipal water system.

“After repairs, officials flushed the affected areas then collected water samples,” said Ben Wright, utilities superintendent for the town. “After the minimum 24-hour testing period, results came back negative for any presence of bacteria agents in the water supply.”

On Wednesday night, a water main break in the White, Main and Clebourne streets area closed a lane of traffic and prompted a boil water advisory. Residents throughout the Fort Mill system were advised to “vigorously” boil water for at least a minute prior to its use for drinking or cooking. Town and South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control officials issued the advisory due to the “possibility of contamination of the water supply.”

By Thursday afternoon the town limited the area still under the advisory to a section in the Spratt Street and Brickyard Road area, from the northwest side of Main Street down to Fort Mill Parkway. The area includes Riverview Elementary School, where students and staff weren’t able to use water fountains and bottled water was brought in per the advisory.

Health department testing of the water was done to determine when it would be safe to lift the advisory.

The water system in Fort Mill serves its more than 13,000 residents along with many others in unincorporated Fort Mill. The town gets its water from Rock Hill after that city draws it from Lake Wylie. In 2017 Fort Mill purchased more than 800 million gallons of water for distribution to residential, commercial, industrial and wholesale customers.