LUTZ - Nearly 200 homeowners in Crystal Lakes Manors, plus everybody at Lutz Elementary School, were warned this week not to drink their water without boiling it.
Two days later, the warning was lifted after the water passed cleanliness tests.
Luke Mulford, water quality engineer with Hillsborough County's Water Department, said the school and the development share a small, formerly private water system where an electrical problem shut down a well pump late last Sunday night. That caused water pressure to drop, creating the possibility that the system's water could become contaminated at its connection points with facilities like irrigation systems.
At Lutz Elementary, principal Mary Fernandez received word Monday morning.
"We did an emergency trip to Winn-Dixie and got bottled water for all the kids," she said. The 800 bottles of water cost $164, Fernandez said.
Employees wrapped the school's water fountains in plastic and discarded ice from the cafeteria's ice machines, she said.
On Tuesday, the children brought their own water. On Wednesday, the warning was lifted.
Fernandez recalled, and Mulford acknowledged, that the problem had occurred before.
"Any time we have these little plants, they're just a lot of trouble," he said.
