A positive test for E. coli has prompted a boil-water advisory for customers connected to two water utilities in Nova Scotia.

Customers in Three Mile Plains and Windsor are being asked to take precautions until two consecutive negative tests come back.

“One of two things can happen,” says Don Beatty, the director of Windsor Public Works. “Either someone would have touched the sample bottle and contaminated it, or there could have been a problem with the lab-testing procedures.”

As a precaution, nearly 7,000 people are being asked to boil their water before drinking it, making ice cubes, or brushing their teeth.

“Just something to be mindful of,” says Three Mile Plains resident Carrie Speed. “You have to watch, make sure people aren’t consuming it, and make sure you take the extra precautions.”

The advisory was issued Thursday afternoon.

“A sample taken on the Municipality of West Hants distribution system early in the week came back on Wednesday as a positive for E. coli,” says Don Beatty, the director of Windsor Public Works.

All residents on the Municipality of West Hants – Three Miles Plains water system are on the order. Because the town of Windsor supplies them with water through a connection, the Nova Scotia Environment Department required that system to go on the advisory as well.

Beatty says, depending on test results, the boil-water advisory could be lifted as early as Saturday.

Until then, residents and business owners are finding different ways to cope with the order.

Brianna MacDonald, a barista at a coffee shop in Windsor, says she is still able to serve hot drinks, but their cold drinks selection is more limited.

“That kind of affects our sales and stuff because of the hot weather and ice water, but we are selling more water bottles,” says MacDonald.

“It doesn’t impact me that much because I already drink the bottled water, rather than the town water, but where the boil water’s coming with everything, and the storm’s coming, I just needed to go stock up on water,” says Windsor resident Darlene Jefferson.

Beatty says the storm isn’t expected to impact the water system.

“The system is totally independent of the flow we pump into the treatment plant and there’s complete…filtration of the water, so that wouldn’t have any impact on this sort of situation.”

With files from CTV Atlantic's Jacqueline Foster