A major water main break near Groveland’s Sunshine Water Treatment Plant disrupted service Tuesday to about 3,500 homes, prompting a precautionary boil-water advisory and emergency repairs officials expect to complete by evening.

At a 2:30pm press conference, Interim City Manager Tim Maslow says water pressure could begin returning as early as 6pm. However, the boil-water advisory will remain in place until required testing confirms the water is safe.

The break affects Groveland’s northern service area, including neighborhoods along Cherry Lake Road, State Road 19, Wilson Lake Parkway and U.S. 27. The city temporarily shut down the Sunshine plant while crews worked on the damaged main.

Bottled water distribution is scheduled from 4 to 7pm Tuesday in the car line at Cherry Lake Prep. Residents can call the city’s information line at 352-429-2740 for updates.

Tuesday’s break marks the third recent water disruption affecting the area, following two incidents involving the plant’s computerized pump controls.

Public Works Director T.J. Fish says this incident is more serious.

“So, this is a serious water main break,” he says. “This is not like the previous two advisories where we had just pressure drops.”

Fish attributes the break to the age of the 16-inch main, which was part of a private utility the city purchased in 2006. He says the roughly 30-year-old pipe was already past its useful life.

Some households continued receiving water through connections between the city’s northern and southern systems, officials say, while others had no service. Pieces of the burst pipe were visible during the press conference, accentuated only by the new replacement pipes on site  to replace them.

Still, Maslow acknowledges the frustration of residents unable to complete basic daily tasks, from brushing their teeth to getting ready for work or school.

First and foremost, that’s unacceptable,” he says.

During the previous outage, reported Friday, Sept. 25, software shut off the plant’s pumps for approximately 30 minutes. Crews manually restarted them, restoring pressure to the affected area. The city estimated that incident affected 2,500 to 3,000 residents.

Fish says the earlier disruptions occurred when the control system incorrectly registered that a water tank was full and shut down the pumps. Operators are now running the plant manually around the clock while the city goes forward with replacement technology.

Officials also announced a $7.88 million Florida Department of Environmental Protection grant tied to Hurricanes Helene and Milton to help overhaul the Sunshine facility.

Planned work includes replacing the main between the plant and U.S. 27, upgrading computerized controls and improving electrical systems and backup capabilities. Maslow says the main replacement is being moved from the third year of the city’s capital improvement plan into the first year. Fish says the grant is scheduled to go before the City Council Oct. 19.

A separate $25 million project, the Villa City Water Treatment Plant, is already under construction and expected to be completed by mid-2028. Fully funded through a separate state environmental grant, it will become Groveland’s sixth water treatment and wellhead location, adding capacity and redundancy to the system.

Asked by Style whether residents would receive compensation for the repeated interruptions, Mayor Keith Keogh says the council has postponed a planned 10% utility rate increase until bills issued in January. No decision has been made on additional compensation, which would require council action.

Maslow also says the city expects to introduce a text-message alert system within four to five weeks to notify customers more quickly when problems occur.

For now, officials say their immediate priority is restoring service Tuesday evening, followed by testing needed to lift the advisory.

We have got to get ahead of the problem,” Keogh says.