Two areas of Pascagoula remain under boil water notice

Although the boil water notice for part of the City of Pascagoula has been lifted, two quadrants still remain under notice.

On Monday, the City of Pascagoula put out a boil water notice due to an unidentified water main leak.

“We were notified that our water tank levels had decreased in pressure below the 20 psi requirements from the Mississippi Department of Health,” said Lindsay Mitchell, the community relations director.

Initially the city could not find where the leak was coming from, so they called for help.

“we had regional help from h20, our contractor through a public works came in to help us have more personnel on the ground identifying the leakage,” Mitchell said.

The leak was located on the southeast quadrant of the city, which is the area south of Highway 90 and east of 14th Street, has now been repaired.

That area, along with the north quadrant – the area north of Highway 90 – are both still under a boil water notice.

“Boil water notices are a detriment to the community as it causes some issues that they have to face however it is precautionary and it is for the safety for our citizens,” Mitchell said.

To keep the students safe within the Pascagoula-Gautier School District, the school allowed students to be dismissed early on Tuesday and come in later the next morning.

“When we can’t use restrooms, we had to take a little time to make sure the pressure was built back up so that they worked properly – so that everybody would be in a good situation when they came to school,” said Billy Ellzey, the Pascagoula-Gautier superintendent.

The boil water notice has made the process of serving food to the students slightly different, but the school district was prepared.

“We have bottled water at all sites. We keep some in stock ready for things like this,” said Sarah Busby, the child nutrition director. “We also serve cold milk and we have juice at meals today so the children have plenty of options for clean beverages”

Once the tests are clear for the north and southeast quadrants, the boil water notice will be lifted.