Update: The city issued an update on the evening of May 28 and it said that after receiving test results from Kelowna, it has concluded that water is safe to drink.
A major leak in the water system affected Grand Forks' water but there has been no water advisory issued.
There were reports of dirty water stemming from problems in the city's water system but Grand Forks' Fire Chief Blair Macgregor said that there is currently no cause for concern.
"At this point in time, we don't believe there is a problem," Macgregor said Friday afternoon (May 27).
"That being said, we're doing testing, as we speak, and within the next hour, those tests will driven to Kelowna and they will be checked first thing in the morning and then we'll know one way or another."
He said that with the amount of water flowing, everything should be going out of the system and no contaminants coming in.
"Anytime we even use a fire hydrant and we're at a major fire and we use a lot of water, we stir up stuff that collects inside the pipes," he said.
"To us that's probably (what's happening). What we're telling people is run your taps for awhile and it'll clear."
He said that if there was a problem, an advisory would be issued by noon tomorrow (Saturday, May 28) on the city's website.
The fire chief also said people would be going to restaurants and hospitals to inform of the water advisory and it would be broadcast over the radio too.
"I don't believe for one minute that we're going to find an issue, we're just meeting the precautions available to us to ensure that our water is safe," he said, adding that bathing should not be an issue either.
If people have concerns about drinking water, he recommends waiting until about mid-afternoon tomorrow (Saturday).
"If no advisory has come out by 3 p.m. tomorrow afternoon then it's not going to come out," Macgregor said.
The city noticed that there was a problem with the water lines on Friday.
"(Friday) morning, we experienced a major water leak in our water system," explained Macgregor.
"We had all five of our water pumps in our wells going full steam and the reservoir was going down, so we knew that we had a major, major leak."
Macgregor said that the problem was isolated in about 30-minutes and it was traced to one of the lines that runs under the Kettle River – he thinks that it may be a break.
The water was shut off to that line and pressure returned but because of the state of the river, it will be some time before officials find out what the damage is and its extent.
Macgregor estimates that that could take place in August.