Editor’s note: The boil water advisory was officially lifted at about 7 a.m. Thursday.

Students on the main campus of the Boyle County Schools were only drinking bottled water Wednesday, after a water main break on the campus.

According to Assistant Superintendent Chris Holderman, the break happened about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“We were running some fiberoptic cables, they tunnel under the ground. They hit a water line that was on our campus, but was not marked,” Holdermand said.

No students were impacted Tuesday afternoon, he said, because all kids were gone by the time the water ran out.

The Danville Water Department responded quickly to the problem, Holderman said.

“They responded immediately … They fixed it within a couple of hours,” he said.

The advisory was issued that night for all three schools on the main campus: Woodlawn Elementary School, the Boyle County Middle School and the Boyle County High School.

Holderman said the district has protocols established, which they were able to enact, and followed the protocols from the Boyle County Health Department. Students can wash their hands with soap and water, he said, but the district set out hand sanitizer, too, to use after washing their hands. He said the district also followed the protocols established for cooking breakfast and lunch.

The district got bottled water from Lowe’s; they were able to order about 9,000 bottles, enough for every student and staff member to have two 16 ounce bottles for Wednesday and today. 

“We don’t know if it’ll be lifted tonight, so we’re going to prepare for that,” Holderman said on Wednesday afternoon.

He said Masters had delivery trucks go to the Lowe’s in Nicholasville on Wednesday to bring the rest of the water in.

“They went above and beyond the call of duty there,” he said. “Our maintenance guys delivered that to (the three) schools.”

Holderman said even if the water advisory was lifted on Wednesday evening, they would likely operate under it on Thursday morning, to give the district maintenance crews time to visit each school. 

Under the advisory, he said, the district protocols require them to shut down the water fountains and cover them and shut down the ice makers. To bring them back online, they have to flush the lines and change the filters on those.