Local restaurant explains impact of boil advisory

Springfield Mo. – After test results came back clean the boil advisory that affected 30,000 customers in Springfield has ended. During the advisory many businesses and homes in southeast Springfield were asked to boil their water before using it. The Hill Italian Restaurant is near the intersection of National and Battlefield rd., two servers at the restaurant tell Ozarksfirst that the advisory did not have a large impact on their service, but it happened on a very busy day.

"If it wasn't as busy, if it would have been like on a Tuesday morning. I think it would have been a lot more chill. But it was a Saturday morning and that's probably one of our most busy shifts that we have" says Lydia Chapman.

Chapman and another server Leslie Buell say they didn't know about the boil advisory until they got to work Saturday morning.

"Our manager was like, hey, I just got a call. There's a boil advisory, and we kind of were just running through what to do. She gave me the company card and sent me to the store to get like 18 cases of soda, water, lemonade, all kinds of stuff" says Buell.

Joel Alexander with Springfield City Utilities says that an advisory of this magnitude is extremely rare.

"The number of customers, 30,000 is unheard of for a boil water advisory here in Springfield. I think is safe to say that is the largest we have had. I know it's the largest we've ever put out."

He also explained that there is an investigation into potentially faulty piece of equipment that could have caused the main break. The Hill Italian Restaurant did not have trouble cooking food because they already boil water for pasta and sauces. Signage was also posted at the front of the restaurant explaining customers the situation with the advisory.

"We let all of our customers know that we couldn't give them any ice. We had a couple of customers who were a little frustrated, but most people were pretty understanding. But we just let them know the situation and that our customer safety is our top priority" says Chapman.

Alexander says that this crews handled the unprecedented situation very well, ending the advisory in a timely manner.

"We anticipated actually it probably lasting a little longer. But because of the how quickly we had our crews on site, our crews out doing the sample testing, we were able to really ramp this up and get that 18-hour period started just as quickly as we possibly could."

The investigation into the potentially faulty piece of equipment is expected to be concluded in the coming days.