Four Lee County Utilities boil water notices are in effect on Wednesday morning, and two of them started at 9 a.m.
The feature layer behind Lee County Utilities' public boil water notice map held four notices with no rescind date on Wednesday morning, July 29. Two of them took effect at 9 a.m. that morning.
The first of the two is a scheduled shutdown for a two inch valve replacement, recorded against 2148 Dover Avenue. It is the widest of the four. The utility lists it as covering 2100 through 2149 Dover Avenue, excluding 2101; all of Ephraim Avenue, Flora Avenue, Gorham Avenue and Harvard Avenue between Austin Street and Beacon Street; 8712 through 8772 Beacon Street; all of Austin Street from Ephraim Avenue to Woodland Boulevard; and seven addresses on South Cleveland Avenue, at 12575, 12611, 12631, 12641, 12651, 12701 and 12749.
The second is a water main tie in at 181 Lagoon Drive. The utility lists it as covering 181 and 183 Lagoon Drive, all of Bellair Road, and 4729 Palm Beach Boulevard, which its record identifies as the Flamingo Resort.
Two more carried over from Tuesday and had not been rescinded. One is a scheduled two inch valve replacement recorded against 8844 Fordham Street, in effect since 9 a.m. on July 28, covering 8838 through 8920 Fordham Street, 2400 through 2455 La Salle Avenue, all of Woodland Circle, 2402 Woodland Boulevard, and 2460 and 2475 Jasper Avenue.
The other is the only unplanned notice in the set. The utility classes it as an emergency shutdown, caused by a four inch main break at 18048 Cypress Point Road, in effect since 10 a.m. on July 28 and covering 18056 through 18078 Cypress Point Road.
Lee County Utilities states the conditions under which it issues these. A precautionary boil water notice goes out when water pressure in a main line drops below 20 psi, which it says typically happens because of a water main break or during scheduled maintenance. The utility is explicit that the notice is a precaution taken to protect public health even when contamination has not been confirmed, and that it follows Florida Department of Environmental Protection guidelines.
On what the notice requires, the utility is specific. Water should be brought to a rolling boil for at least one minute before it is used for drinking, cooking, making ice, brushing teeth or washing dishes, or bottled water should be used instead.
Notices remain in effect until bacteriological testing confirms the water is safe, which the utility says typically takes 48 to 72 hours. Its own record for July is broadly consistent with that. Eight notices have already been rescinded this month, most of them within two or three days of the interruption. The exception is a fire hydrant replacement at 6280 Hamilton Drive, which went into effect on July 14 and was not rescinded until July 23.
Counting the rescinded records alongside the four still open, every boil water notice on the layer carries a July date, twelve in total. Four of the twelve are main breaks: at 4640 Underwood Drive on July 22, at 1644 Park Meadows Road the same day, at 14080 Henkler Road on July 23, and now at Cypress Point Road. The remaining eight are service repairs, valve replacements, hydrant replacements and main tie ins, work the utility scheduled itself.
This list is Lee County Utilities only. Cape Coral runs its own water system and publishes its own separate map, which showed three areas still under notice earlier this week. A Cape Coral address is not covered by anything above, and a Lee County Utilities customer is not covered by the Cape Coral map.
For the current state of any of these, Lee County Utilities points residents to a recorded hotline at 239-533-8575, which it says states current and rescinded notices and is updated daily by 4 p.m.
