MARCO ISLAND, Fla. — Thousands of dollars in damage on Marco Island is all because of a simple mistake, leaders say happens over and over again. Water main breaks, bring boil water notices to people in the city multiple times a week. It's something Marco Island residents saw 8 times in July.
Casey Lucius is the assistant city manager on the island.
"We're averaging about two [main line breaks and water boil notices] a week, which is pretty frequent for a small city like Marco Island," Lucius said.
She says contractors in the city installing telecommunication infrastructure, like wifi or telephone wires, sometimes... make mistakes.
"They are doing a lot of digging in the right of way. And basically, when they are digging underground, they hit our water mains accidentally," she says.
When the water pressure gets low, there's a chance bacteria can get in the water. This is why the city encourages residents to boil their water after a main break for at least one minute.
Repairing the damaged water mains gets expensive. Contracting companies who hit them are the ones who pay for the fix. The city does the repairs. On average, it costs about $800 dollars to fix a main break. That's roughly $6,400 in repairs in July alone.
"We do test the water. We take three different samples from three different locations. We run it through two tests, over 2, 24-hour periods. So the boil water notice is usually in effect for about 48 hours," Lucius said.
She says these notices are published on social media and the MyMarco mobile app, to keep residents healthy.
