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.