A city wide Water Advisory from the Statesboro Public Utilities Department was posted by Jonathan McCollar, the mayor of Statesboro, to his facebook page. 

According to the post the Water Advisory is due to possible water discoloration as a result of the amount of water that was needed to fight the fire in the Little Lotts Creek Apartments on East Jones Avenue near Downtown Statesboro earlier this morning. 

The Water Advisory stands for the next 24 hours as the Public Utilities Department works to clear out the discoloration and recommends to avoid using hot water to keep the discoloration at a minimum. As the post states, “ If your water is discolored, you can try running cold water for 15-20 minutes.

When we called the office of the superintendent of water and sewer we were able to get some more information as to how the discoloration happened in this case.

Kelli Saxon, the administrative assistant of water sewage and natural gas, explained how due to the size of the fire at Little Lotts Creek apartments the quantity of water needed to handle the fire was larger than normally flows through the pipes. So the unexpected rush of water loosens sediment inside the pipes which is what creates the tea colored water to occur.

When discussing the extent of the discoloration we were informed of reports from areas as far from the fire site as East Georgia Regional Medical Center of discoloration.