An investigation is underway into the source of contamination for Greymouth's water supply. Photo: RNZ/Rebekah Parsons-King
Greymouth residents will "hopefully" get an update about the E Coli water contamination situation on Thursday, says Grey District Mayor Tania Gibson.
Coliform bacteria and low levels of E Coli were detected from test results on Wednesday, with a boil notice issued until further notice.
Grey District Mayor Tania Gibson said an investigation was underway but there were no early indications as to the source of the contamination.
"It's come as a suprise to all of us, we normally have very good drinking water in the district, we do have a seperate water supply that's not affected from one of our smaller areas.
Gibson told Morning Report that an investigation to identify the source of the contamination has narrowed the search down to "a couple of isolated zones".
"We're just, working through the process of trying to isolate what this problem is."
She said more information could "hopefully" be provided after the results of further testing were completed this afternoon.
"Hopefully we get good results this afternoon, but again, we will still have to keep those, boil water notices in place for three days."
Although she could confirm there's no contamination link to the Greymouth Wastewater Treatment Plant or the district's water bore system despite "lots of speculation" from the public.
"We're making sure we are onto it and doing everything we can to find the problem.
"There's some schools closing, some remaining open but if people boil their water, put it in the fridge and follow all the guidelines and updates around food safety we should get through this," said the mayor.
While some schools would close because of the water contamination situation, Development West Coast chief executive Heath Milne said he did not anticipate businesses needing to close.
He said most Greymouth businesses had adapted to the boil water notice and were well prepared for a situation like this one.
"I don't see it hitting businesses too hard financially as long as it's resolved quickly.
"Most hospitality business would have a contingency supply of water and most business can adapt for a short period, I know there's been a bit of rush for bottled water in the town but that will be replenished.
The boil notice affects more than a dozen areas and cannot be lifted until there are three straight days of clear test results.
Milne said he would start to be concerned if the boil notice continued into next week.
"If it carried on beyond the weekend, it could start to impact businesses but they have time to prepare and there is alternative supplies of potable water.
"The impact on businesses should be minimal but the length of time will have an impact on that, no question," said Milne.
Greymouth business owner Allan Monk said for the time being he was having to get fresh water supplies from Hokitika for his Paroa hotel and Sevenpenny restaurant.
"I've had to disassemble the coffee machine and plumb it into some water that's in a drum, there's things like that.
"We need water so we can actually sell alcohol because it's a legal requirement so it was a mad rush trying to get all those things in place."
He said the the water contamination issue impacts a range of services his businesses provide.
"Coffees, post-mix so the soft drink that comes out the gun for things like coke and lemonade but the big thing is ice and making sure you've got drinking water, there's a lot.
"We can keep going, it's just going to be niggly going to Hokitika each time, that'll be painful.
"I don't see why businesses or schools would need to close, it doesn't make any sense to me, we've lived through harder times than this."
Mr Monk said he was grateful for the swift notice from council but was eager to have more clarity around how long they were expecting to take.
"We're heading into the weekend and we just don't know how long we're expecting for it to come back on.
"It would be good to get some clarity around how long they're expecting to take so we can start making some plans around how it's going to work," he said.
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