Faisal said his department and Missouri American were in contact throughout the day Tuesday.

His agency, the director added, will become involved in testing only in the event of the threat of a disease outbreak.

Faisal credited the water company for exercising an “abundance of caution” in issuing a boil advisory, which he characterized as “benign” because the order doesn’t exclude showering, bathing, hand and clothes washing.

Bags of ice, bottles of soda

As a precautionary measure, the director nonetheless recommended that residents of cities inside the boil advisory perimeter drink bottled water until further notice.

Several area restaurants strictly restricted their beverage sales to bottled drinks. Cody Sturm, manager of the Buffalo Wild Wings in Creve Coeur, went out to Schnucks and Dierbergs to buy 22-pound bags of ice, two-liter bottles of soda and four packs of bottled water when he heard about the boil advisory. He didn’t hear about the order until 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, and when he did, he dumped out the batches of iced tea his employees had made that morning.