Grayslake boil order rolls into Friday due to water pressure drop
Grayslake’s boil order for drinking water will continue through at least part of Friday, the result of a pressure loss in the village’s system, village officials said.
Bill Heinz, the village’s public works director and engineer, said the boil order can’t be lifted until test results on water samples for potential contamination are received. Heinz said officials don’t suspect any contamination occurred, but the village was required to submit the samples for testing under Illinois Environmental Protection Agency regulations.
If the water test results arrive Friday morning, Heinz said, it’s possible the boil order would be canceled by noon.
Village officials said the water system lost significant water pressure at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, lasting about a half-hour. The boil order for all village businesses and homes was announced about two hours later.
Heinz said a preliminary investigation indicates the frigid weather earlier this week led to a malfunction in the automatic operating system that triggered the water pressure drop.
“We want to know,” Heinz said. “Best we believe, weather may have been a factor.”
Crews worked quickly to solve the problem Wednesday. They overrode the system and manually pumped water back into it to correct the pressure problem, according to village officials.
Students and others at four Grayslake Elementary District 46 schools are being directed to bring bottled water with them. The affected buildings were Grayslake Middle School, Woodview School, Meadowview School and Frederick School.
As a precaution, no one was allowed to use the Grayslake grade schools’ drinking fountains when the water pressure drop was noticed before the boil order came Wednesday, District 46 officials said.
Grayslake Central and North high schools will keep all fountains off during the boil order and recommended that bottled water be brought for as long as it lasts. Grayslake High School District 127 said in an announcement that additional bottled water would be available at both buildings.
Village officials encouraged bottled water use for drinking, cooking, cleaning fresh fruit and vegetables, washing hands and brushing teeth. They said the affected tap water should be used for those purposes only after it’s been boiled for five minutes.