BLACKSBURG, Va. – All throughout Montgomery County, if folks want to use their tap water, they have to boil it first, but at Bull and Bones in Blacksburg, they are helping folks out by giving them free water, and keeping their 300 gallon vats full of clean water.
“With the open fermenters and everything we had in the brewery, we could just boil a large batch of water for restaurant use at first and then we had so much of it that we decided it was a good idea for the community to have some of that as well,” said Marc Becker, general manager at Bull and Bones in Blacksburg.
Since Monday, a boil advisory has been issued for people in Montgomery County.
Caused by Hurricane Helene, since the announcement, stores have been selling more water than they can keep.
But one local business has flipped the script and has filled two of their 300 gallon brewery tanks with clean water to give to folks who need it.
“You just bring in a container and we’ll take of it in the brewery, and we’ll bring it right back out to you,” Becker said.
He said this is what communities do for each other.
“Everybody needs to work together in order to solve these problems,” Becker said.
I also talked to one of the workers at Bull and Bones and he said they just changed their brewery system and they were sitting empty, so it was a move that just made sense.
“That’s really cool just to be able to help out in a time like this and put our system to more use than just brewing beer,” said Chris Peters, assistant brewer.
Leaders with the New River Regional Water Authority said they are working to flush lines throughout the area.
They expect the boil advisory to last through the weekend.
Leaders at Bull and Bones said for as long as the boil notice goes on, they plan to have water ready for anybody that needs it.