Equipment problems at the water treatment plant early Sunday morning created serious enough operating issues that the borough advised residents to boil water before consumption and to conserve water until the problems are fixed.

As of Monday afternoon, the boil-water and conservation notices remained in effect.

“We anticipate a resolution within 48 hours,” the borough reported Monday morning.

“The water treatment plant crews are working nonstop to try and get the processing plant back to operational,” Borough Clerk Kim Lane reported mid-morning on Monday.

“The borough has an abundant supply of raw water. The critical challenge lies in our current capacity to safely treat and distribute this water due to the equipment malfunction,” according to the City Hall announcement.

“There is a water chemistry problem and we are working internally, as well as with the manufacturer, chemical supply and engineering consultants to try and resolve it,” explained Public Works Department Director Tom Wetor.

“We speculate that there was a problem with a pH probe, which is equipment that measures the pH (acidic level) of the water,” he added. “This may not be the only issue though. There is certainly a ripple effect when the entire plant goes out of whack.”

The new plant and its treatment system — which went online earlier this year — is supposed to remove organic matter and bacteria through a flotation process, but it stopped working properly on Sunday.

As of early Sunday evening, according to the borough, “an equipment failure reduced the water treatment plant’s capacity to produce water that meets both volume and turbidity standards.”

The insufficient flow of clean water caused storage tank levels “to fall below the minimum threshold for disinfection contact time, necessitating the boil-water directive,” according to the borough’s timeline released on Monday. “Conservation efforts remained critical.”

Without an operating treatment process, “they are pulling water from the reservoirs directly into the tanks and pumping that water through the filters and chlorinating it before it goes to the community,” Lane said.

The borough advised that until further notice residents should not drink tap water without boiling it first to guard against any possible bacteria contamination, bringing the water to a rolling boil for at least one minute and then letting it cool.

“Use boiled or bottled water for drinking, cooking, brushing teeth and washing dishes.”

“Organisms that can be present in water can cause diarrhea, cramps, nausea, headaches, or other symptoms,” the borough reported. “They may pose a special health risk for infants, young children, some of the elderly and people with severely compromised immune systems.”

Several restaurants announced on Facebook that they closed or reduced services on Sunday and Monday, with their reopening pending further news of water quality.

Before the borough can rescind the boil-water notice, it has to report and comply with state rules for water quality.

Though testing on Monday indicated that the plant’s output may be within state standards, “out of an abundance of caution and to best protect public health, the boil-water notice will remain in effect until we conclusively verify that the water meets all required standards,” the borough said.

“To expedite the resolution, we are arranging to fly in additional water chemistry experts to assist our team in restoring the plant to full operational capacity.”