ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – 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.
Signs went up Monday inside the campus directing people: "do not drink the water."
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."
After 3 p.m. Monday any Saint Marys units that needed more bottled water were instructed to call an emergency phone line.
Bottled water is being made available to all.
"The water is suitable for hand washing, but hand sanitizers are being placed in bathrooms as a precautionary measure across the hospital."
Rochester Public Utilities advised KTTC at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday that it had become aware of the problem on Monday morning, and sent utility crews to flush water and test it outside of the Saint Marys complex.
"RPU is confident that the issue is internal to the campus," said spokesman Tony Benson.
In order to verify that it was isolated to the Saint Marys campus, RPU flushed the areas surrounding the campus immediately and found no discolored water."