Some Savannah water customers may see total outage, all urged to boil water before consuming

Challenged by leaks -- and with customers running water to keep pipes from freezing -- the Savannah Utility Department issued a Precautionary Boil Water notice for all its customers Thursday afternoon and warned that parts of its service area could see complete outages.

The department said that as of 3 p.m., “the system is still losing pressure, and all of our water tanks are currently at very low level.” Crews are searching for leaks and customers are strongly urged to report any leaks they see by calling 731-925-4216.

To prioritize critical customers such as Hardin Medical Center, SUD said “all efforts” are being made to keep the water tank on Jackson Street in service, so pumps feeding other tanks elsewhere in the water system have been turned off. If the water level in the Jackson tank continues to fall, “we have the option to shut off the line of each booster station, which would put most of our utility district not located inside the city limits out of water service temporarily.”

Also, because of a loss of pressure in the water system, all Savannah Utility Department water customers should boil their water for three minutes before consuming it until further notice.