On Thursday, August 10th, Brainerd Public Utilities sent out an boil water advisory, stating that those in the north part of the city would need to boil their water before consumption due to the presence of coliform bacteria. On Friday morning, the advisory was updated to cover the entire city.

“We were notified by the Minnesota Department of Health that we needed to have a boil order put in place because of some items in the drinking water system,” explained Brainerd Public Utilities Commission Chairperson Patrick Wussow. “We worked with the Minnesota Department of Health and we put out the notice based upon what we were working with them on.”

In order to correct the contamination, Brainerd Public Utilities is undergoing a chlorination process throughout their distribution system to ensure the bacteria is eliminated.

“And so the chlorination is killing the bacteria that’s in our water system. And then after the chlorine goes through the system, we’ll be flushing the system and then doing another test and turning those all into the Minnesota Department of Health,” said Wussow, “Crews out there working very diligently. We’ve got a good crew out there working to resolve the issue and good crew answering the the questions today.”

While some have pointed to recent construction activity to be the cause of the contamination, currently the root cause is unknown.

“There’s some speculation what it might be, but right now we haven’t defined what it is,” explained Wussow, “We’re testing how the chlorination goes through the system that helps us to define where the problem really occurred.”

As of now, the boil advisory is set to be lifted on Monday, August 14th, but Brainerd Public Utilities is recommending Brainerd residents to check their website regularly for updates on the issue.

“On our website, we’ve got the notice relating to the boil order and how that started. And as for the entire city, there’s another attachment that you can go there and working with the Department of Health on.” added Wussow.

Brainerd Public Utilities will also be providing free bottled water to affected residents at the Brainerd City Hall parking lot on Saturday, August 12th from 8 a.m. to noon. Each BPU customer can receive one case and a one gallon jug of water per vehicle. The water will be available while supplies last.

By — Justin Othoudt