Some businesses in the northern New Hanover County area were affected by the water alert that was issued by the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority on Wednesday morning.

That alert told people not to drink the water or use it for cooking due to tests that showed “high levels” of fluoride at the Richardson Nanofiltration Groundwater Treatment Plant in the northern part of the county, according to a news release from the CFPUA.

The alert was lifted at about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. At the time, some of the central areas of the Richardson Nanofiltration Groundwater Treatment Plant service area, however, were under a precautionary boil water advisory.

Some businesses took measures to cope with the alert during the day.

The Port City Java location at 8211 Market Street in the Porters Neck area took heed of the CFPUA alert. The establishment opened Wednesday morning but did not use the water. That meant coffee drinks were not served, officials said. The business did, however, serve its bottled drinks, milkshakes, smoothies and food items.

K38 Baja Grill, also at 8211 Market Street in the shopping center at Porters Neck Center, was also open for business Wednesday morning. Officials at the restaurant said that the business had "plenty of bottled water" that it was using for "cooking and drinking." It was also serving bottled soda products.

According to Cape Fear Community College, the CFPUA alert also impacted its north campus. The college issued an alert based on CFPUA's information, college officials said Wednesday morning.

“We notify critical customers. We have tier I, II, III, IV levels of notifications. We have notified all these levels in the service levels. Those include hotels, apartment complexes, plus schools, breweries, dialysis, vets and any type of healthcare,” CFPUA spokeswoman Peg Hall Williams said in an email about those businesses and others notified by its alert system Wednesday morning.

“Restaurants are not included on that list," she said, adding that those businesses would need to contact their licensing agency.

According to Ruth Ravitz Smith, spokeswoman for New Hanover County, that is the public health department, which did "not advise anything different" than what the CFPUA issued in its notices.

CFPUA is investigating the cause of the spike in fluoride at the Richardson Nanofiltration Groundwater Treatment Plant, Hall Williams said Wednesday afternoon. For further updates from the CFPUA about the advisories check its news feed.

Correction: this story has been corrected to reflect that restaurants would need to contact the county's health department.