Halifax County is under a state of emergency while it works to fix water issues.

The county has ordered a pause on all digging and trenching construction after they say a third party has hit their water lines multiple times. 

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County Manager Dia Denton told WRAL News in an email, “a contractor digging to lay fiber hit water lines disrupting our repairs on Wednesday around noon and again yesterday [Thursday] around 2:00 p.m.” 

Denton said the company is a sub-contractor of an internet service provider. 

“We have narrowed it down to two possible companies,” she wrote. “We have spoken with both, but have not been able to 100% confirm which company it is.” 

Denton said the NC DIT Broadband Infrastructure Office is assisting with investigating which subcontractor is responsible for the issue. 

County Commissioner Jimmie Silver said county leaders are concerned about the vulnerable population who cannot get out to water distribution cites and frustrated about the issues. 

“We're using personnel working overtime with the county to do this,” Silver said. “If there's any way we can recoup some of that funding and damage, we want to do that, because I don't feel it's fair for the taxpayers to pay for their mistakes.” 

Denton said most water service has been restored, and crews are addressing individual outage reports. 

However, all customers of Halifax County Public Utilities remain under a boil water advisory, even if their water is running. 

“Samples will be taken this weekend and if results are favorable, we hope to lift the boil water advisory early to mid-next week,” Denton wrote. 

Silver said the county has requested representatives from each internet service provider attend the next Halifax County Commission meeting to work on a plan moving forward. The next meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 16.

“We still need fiber optic. It's a major obstacle in this county,” Silver said. “But we want to do it moving forward with the least amount of harm or problems. We expect things like this to happen, but not to this level."

The county has a water truck at Hollister Elementary School for residents in need. The water truck stationed there has potable water, but residents need to bring their own bottles to fill.