United Water temporarily shut off service to hundreds of customers in Stony Point early Wednesday after a water main broke, forcing the utility to issue a boil-water advisory for the entire town.

What normally would have been a standard fix turned into a challenge as crews jack-hammered through almost a foot of concrete to get to the broken 10-inch pipe. Before they could fix the damage, crews had to remove high levels of hazardous gas at the site of the break ? inside an old water-meter vault.

United Water officials don?t know what caused the break, but a new pipe was replaced after almost eight hours of work. Service was restored Wednesday afternoon, but United Water is advising all Stony Point residents to boil water before using it.