There’s no longer any need to boil Greenville’s water before drinking it.

The state Department of Environmental Protection allowed Greenville Water Authority to lift a boil water advisory Sunday morning, after tests were conclusive that the water wasn’t contaminated with the intestinal parasite giardia.

The notice was lifted at about 8:15 and Mayor Dick Miller, who doubles as authority chairman, said the authority spread the word to local media outlets, churches and the water authority’s two largest customers, Thiel College and UPMC Horizon.

“We didn’t want to go into Thanksgiving with people having an inconvenience,” Miller said.

So authority workers went into overdrive to take apart, inspect and repair the water plant’s four filters. Three of them were working Sunday, enough to lift the order, Miller said.

DEP has said that three working filters are enough to ensure that giardia doesn’t contaminate the treated water.

“I thought they (authority workers) did a good job under extreme pressure,” Miller said.

It was yet another test for Greenville’s 3,000-customer water system, where boil water advisories are not unexpected.

“We don’t have the resources that other systems do,” Miller said.

The authority lacks the manpower of larger utilities and resources like an in-house lab and a cache of spare parts, Miller said.

He emphasized that the boil water notice was an “advisory” and didn’t mean the water wasn’t safe to drink, just that it might not be safe.

“It was important to err on the side of caution,” Miller said.

Because of the inconvenience posed to customers, the authority is giving them a 25 percent discount on their next water bill.

Customers with delinquent bills do not qualify.

Board members estimate the authority will lose $75,000 on that discount, but felt they had to give something back to the customers for dealing with the boil alert.