LUMBERTON — An order to limit water use has been lifted in Lumberton, although a boil advisory remains in effect.

Three portable systems at the city’s water plant are filtering about 6 million gallons per day of mostly well water and sending out to city tanks, says Public Works Director Rob Armstrong. With the city typically using about 5 million gallons of water per day, a conservation notice is no longer needed.

City residents have had low-pressure water this week as the city worked to build and pressurize its water supply following Hurricane Matthew. The city’s water plant was shut down after a generator there failed and, until last weekend, crews were unable to get into the facility because it was flooded by Hurricane Matthew.

Although the water system is now fully pressurized, the water plant is still offline. Armstrong estimated that repairs at the plant could take about 30 days.

Residents should still boil their water before consuming it because it is traveling through lines that were dry. The water moving through the portable systems is being chlorinated twice before being distributed.

The city also connected its water system to the county’s in order to help get taps flowing, but Armstrong said very limited county water is still being used.

Matthew hit on Oct. 8, causing widespread flooding from which the county is still trying to recover. It is blamed for four deaths, displacing 5,000 people and damaging more than 7,000 structures.

City residents still urged to boil water

Staff Report