Since Monday, patients, visitors and staff at the massive Saint Marys complex in Rochester have been directed not to drink the water coming from faucets, and Mayo said it had given out 89,280 bottles of water as of late Wednesday morning.
Technicians continued testing the water in the various buildings around on the Saint Marys campus.
The dark-colored water was first reported Monday morning and was immediately investigated by Rochester Public Utilities, but RPU did not issue any statements on what it had done or found until more than 24 hours later, after KTTC began reporting on what was happening inside the hospital complex.
Hospital staff have given out 89,280 bottles of water to patients, visitors and staff so far, with an additional 2,880 gallons of bottled cooking water supplied to the kitchens at Saint Marys, according to Mayo spokesperson Kelley Luckstein.
"As a precautionary measure, Mayo is advising patients, visitors and staff to refrain from drinking the water or using ice from the ice machines.
An unusual emergency impacted thousands of people at Mayo Clinic-Saint Marys on Monday and continued into Tuesday–the water in the complex was declared unfit to drink.
But just before noon Tuesday, Rochester Public Utilities declared water was safe to drink outside of the Saint Marys complex.
New signs went up on Tuesday saying “Don’t drink water because of sediment.” When people flushed toilets at Saint Marys, dark-colored water came into the toilet from water supply lines.
On the internal Mayo Clinic News Network, the direction to staff was more specific, saying, "Refrain from consuming the water and using it in clinical care until further notice."
Patients and visitors are being advised to drink bottled water," said Theimer in an emailed statement.

A monitoring well drilled near a former landfill in East Quogue has detected a perfluorinated compound in a concentration more than 150 times the level at which federal officials say exposure in drinking water can cause health problems, including impaired fetal growth, certain cancers and immune system conditions.
State Department of Environmental Conservation officials said the result — the highest concentration detected on Long Island of the compound, used in some firefighting foams — came from groundwater samples, not a drinking-water well.
Nevertheless, Southampton Town began delivering bottled water Wednesday afternoon to 107 homes in the surrounding area with private wells.
“Hopefully the test results will show no contamination.” If test results are above a federal health advisory level, the state will decide whether a home should have a treatment system installed or be hooked up to public-water supplies, which, unlike private wells, must comply with drinking water standards.
The compound is not regulated in drinking water, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion for PFOS alone or in combination with a related compound, perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA.
In both cases, homes were connected to public water supplies.
DEC officials said they were considering adding the East Quogue parcel as a possible Superfund site.
“We can’t be addressing this on an ad hoc basis one site at a time.” Last year, a state Drinking Water Quality Council was charged with recommending a safe level of the compounds to the health commissioner to help in crafting a state drinking-water standard.
For homes with private wells Free well testing and bottled water are available to people living in the affected area.
Well testing: Suffolk County Office of Water Resources, 631-852-5810 Bottled water: Southampton Town, 631-283-6055 or 631-287-5745.

Shallow wells dug for drinking water in the Amazon basin in order to avoid polluted rivers contain up to 70 times the recommended limit of arsenic, researchers warned Tuesday.
Samples taken from 250 sites along the Amazon—the first systematic analysis of the region’s well water—also revealed hazardous levels of manganese and aluminium, they reported at a conference in Vienna.
"In parts of the Amazon basin, groundwater contains these trace elements in concentrations that are potentially harmful to human health."
"Contamination should not be underestimated—all our data point in the same direction," she added.
Levels of manganese were up to 15 times higher than World Health Organization (WHO) limits, while aluminium exceeded WHO standards by up to three-fold.
Chronic exposure to arsenic is linked to cancers of the liver, kidney and bladder, as well as heart disease.
It is also thought to contribute to miscarriages, low birth weights and poor cognitive development in children.
"At this time, we cannot say how many people are affected," de Meyer said.
Because iron causes water to turn reddish-brown, people often let it stand so that particles—including some of the arsenic—can settle to the bottom.
De Meyer first uncovered dangerous levels of arsenic in groundwater drawn for drinking at a couple of sites in the Peruvian Amazon, leading her to suspect the problem was more widespread.

The West Virginia Supreme Court upheld the decision of a Wyoming County jury that a coal company operated by Gov.
The families who showed their water was contaminated by lead and arsenic, but couldn’t prove that mining operations by Dynamic Energy Inc. and Mechel Bluestone Inc. caused it, had appealed the ruling from a Wyoming circuit judge that denied their motion to set aside the jury’s verdict, according to the ruling the court handed down Thursday.
The court also issued a ruling on a second appeal from the same case and remanded the decision on a preliminary injunction back to Wyoming County, where a circuit judge will have to rule on how to proceed after the coal company violated the court’s order, according to the ruling written by Justice Robin Davis.
The individual suits were consolidated into one case, which led to a three-week trial in April and May 2016.
Following the verdict, the families attorneys filed a motion to set aside the verdicts and have a new trial, claiming there had been jury interference and witness intimidation and that an alternate juror, who ended up being seated on the jury, had a relationship with a corporate representative of the coal company that should have disqualified him from service.
Dynamic Energy’s attorneys said the company didn’t procure or request the presence of the UMWA members, and their presence didn’t interfere with the families’ right to a fair trial.
The court supported Dynamic’s argument, saying the families’ attorneys didn’t show any evidence that the company solicited the presence of the union members or that their presence damaged the families’ rights.
The families’ attorneys also said a former Dynamic employee was set to testify that he illegally buried coal slurry outside of the areas designated by the company’s mining permits that the attorneys said contributed to the water contamination.
“We conclude that the plaintiffs are responsible for the error of which they now complain,” Davis said.
Finally, the families’ attorneys said the evidence in the case clearly showed the company was liable for the water contamination.

Glen Cove city officials plan to borrow more than twice as much money for capital projects this year as in 2017, with most of the increase going to fund efforts to fight Freon 22 contamination that has closed two city drinking water wells.
“We don’t have a choice,” Mayor Timothy Tenke said.
Water is that critical.” The city council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on authorizing $8,891,350 in bonds for capital improvements, including $3,575,000 related to installing Freon-removing air strippers.
Glen Cove officials expect to spend many millions more in the coming years to outfit all six city water wells with air strippers, which, in addition to removing Freon 22, are more effective than currently used equipment in stripping out other contaminants, Tenke said.
Nassau County ordered two water wells closed — one in November, the other in January — after elevated levels of Freon 22 were found.
The county health department on March 28 approved the city’s request to reopen one of the wells after Freon 22 levels dropped.
The city is borrowing $858,000 this year to buy and install the shell of a used air stripper, plus new equipment to go along with it, for the two shuttered wells.
The used air stripper is an interim measure — especially during the high-water-use summer months — while a permanent air stripper is installed over the next 12 to 18 months at another well, officials said.
That well has been closed since 2011 because of Freon 22 and structural issues, and the work to reopen it with the air stripper is expected to cost $4.7 million, with more than half coming from this year’s borrowing.
All of the unanticipated Freon-related spending comes as the city works to stabilize its finances and reduce its debt, which was more than $52 million at the end of 2017, down from about $62 million in late 2013.

However, the issuance in 2016 of two permits by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources — for a high-capacity well on a nearby farm and a new dairy farm — posed imminent threats to the lake’s water level and even the lake itself.
That’s why owners of lakeside and other nearby properties decided to purchase and conserve the 105-acre Bula Farm to protect Pleasant Lake and its watershed lands — and to challenge the DNR permits in court.
The most-recent owner of the Bula Farm purchased the property in 2015 and obtained a permit in 2016 from the DNR to install a high-capacity well for irrigating the land.
In light of that, residents determined they should buy the Bula Farm to deed-restrict the property to prevent any future high-capacity well installation and to stop manure spreading on the property now and in the future.
Land values go way down if the water goes down.” Nearby, the proposed Richfield Dairy has not yet been built, but a renewed permit was issued for it in 2016.
Manure spreading has been found to cause groundwater and surface-water pollution from nitrates and other contaminants of concern, especially in vulnerable areas such as Wisconsin’s Central Sands.
After research, community discussions and consultation with experts, they formed the Pleasant Lake Management District as a governmental body with taxing authority.
Purchasing nearby farmland, if it became available for sale, was one option considered within the plan.
Kunes said, “It’s a very significant related legal issue, in addition to and separate from the farm purchase.” The district also is fighting high-capacity wells — which recently became an even bigger problem.
Kunes noted long-term issues at stake: “Loss of lake water levels and contamination of private wells will result in degradation of both water quality and property values.

Allegan Township may land federal funding to bring city water to residents whose well water became unusable due to contamination.
“Right now, they’re not livable.
Board members voted unanimously to do so and also to add to the project a further extension of the water line to the township border.
That would bring access to industrial firm Material Transfer and the manufactured home park along the way.
“You’re looking at another $300,000 cost to the township on top of the engineering,” Schulz said, as he proposed the idea.
The budget similarly passed unanimously.
In other business, board members were pleased the Allegan County Road Commission had relented on its plans to cut down trees lining Delano Street.
Connell commended the road commission.
“I’d like to thank them for listening to the citizens, listening to the township and taking the time to reconsider.
Board members also approved the wording of the renewals of three longstanding millages.

Groundwater at as many as 14 power plants around the state — from IPL’s Harding Street station in Indianapolis up to NIPSCO’s Michigan City station and down to Duke’s Gallagher station in New Albany — was found to have dangerous levels of pollution, according to an analysis by the Indianapolis Star.
Coal ash contamination concerns This is the first time groundwater testing has been required at all of Indiana’s coal ash dumps, where millions of tons of coal ash sit in unlined pits.
Many plants also exceeded the 15 ppb action level or limit for lead, such as Duke’s western Indiana Cayuga station by nearly three times.
Previous tests done by Marion County health officials showed elevated levels of boron in their well, but not above safe drinking water standards.
"I just want to know," Cravens added, "what is the next step?"
Pam Thevenow with the Marion County Public Health Department encourages all residents with private wells to have them tested to ensure their water is safe.
"So that is evidence that it can pose a health risk, and it has," Thevenow has told IndyStar.
"When necessary," he said, "we will work with facilities to implement site-specific remedial actions."
Several other utilities — including IPL, NIPSCO and Vectren — said they are in the process of working to close their ash pits.
"It looks to me like we can’t close the ash in place," she said, adding that several unlined sites around the country closed with a cap still indicate groundwater contamination.

Following the discovery of perfluorochemicals or PFCs in the drinking water of one southern Delaware town, residents were forced to drink bottled water for weeks.
Now state officials are urging residents using private wells to get their water tested.
Near the end of February, state officials gave the all clear to residents of Blades to resume drinking water from the tap after the town installed a new filtration system.
The cause of the PFC contamination has not yet been identified.
One in six Delaware families gets water from a private well, which need regular testing, according to officials with the state Division of Public Health.
But it’s up to residents to make sure their water is tested annually, said Chantel Mason with the Delaware Health Department.
“Although we do not regulate private well water, we do regulate public water,” Mason said.
“We do see a need for private well owners to have access to the tools that they would need in order to make sure that their water is safe.” The department will test private well water for bacteria and chemicals for just $4.
Residents can pick up test kits at the following health service centers in all three Delaware counties: University Office Plaza, Chopin Building, Suite 105, Newark Delaware Public Health Laboratory, Smyrna Thomas Collins Building, Suite 5, Dover Adams State Service Center, Georgetown While it’s recommended that private wells be tested once a year, more frequent testing is suggested if someone in the home is pregnant or nursing, or if the water is being used to prepare formula for an infant.
State officials also recommend increased testing frequency if neighbors have found a contaminant in their water or if residents notice a change in water taste, odor, color, or clarity.

Some Clearfield County residents have fought for years to block a proposed injection well to store wastewater from the state’s natural gas fields, but the project has secured a permit from Pennsylvania environmental officials.
The Department of Environmental Protection gave its approval this week for the well, which will be operated in Brady Township by Windfall Oil and Gas.
Residents near the site of the proposed Clearfield County well have opposed the project over concerns about earthquakes and water contamination.
Marianne Atkinson of Brady Township said her family’s water well is 900 feet from the proposed injection site.
“Is it going to harm me, or the dog, even?
The Atkinsons have also spoken out against the project at public hearings and even tried appealing its federal permit, which was ultimately granted by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2015.
“I’m kind of at the end of my rope here,” Rick Atkinson said.
Wastewater injection wells have come under scrutiny for causing earthquakes in other states.
This story was published in partnership with StateImpact Pennsylvania, a collaboration between WESA, Allegheny Front, WITF and WHYY, to cover the commonwealth’s energy economy.
Read more stories at StateImpact Pennsylvania’s website.