PWSA finds tests clean, warning could end

2 consecutive days required by DEP

A boil-water advisory affecting thousands of Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority customers may end Thursday.

Water samples taken from the affected area Monday and Tuesday yielded no signs of contamination, PWSA spokesman Will Pickering said Wednesday evening in a statement.

Authority officials must show two consecutive days of acceptable test results from that area before the state Department of Environmental Protection will allow the advisory to expire, according to a DEP order issued Monday.

Still, it wasn’t certain when the advisory will end. “Late [Thursday] has not been ruled out as a possibility,” Mr. Pickering wrote via email.

DEP did not immediately comment. The boil warning announced Monday includes about 18,000 homes on Pittsburgh’s North Side and in Millvale and Reserve, all served by PWSA’s Lanpher Reservoir in Shaler.

Affected customers who use water for drinking should flush their lines by running the tap for

at least a minute, according to PWSA guidance. Then they’re supposed to boil it vigorously for another minute to kill bacteria.

In a statement Tuesday, DEP spokewoman Lauren Fraley detailed what PWSA must do before the advisory can be canceled.

“Specifically, PWSA must flush the affected portions of its distribution system, maintain increased disinfectant residuals and provide two consecutive days of sampling results collected from the affected area that are negative for total coliform bacteria,” Ms. Fraley said in a statement. “A lifting of the advisory must be approved by the DEP in writing.”

The DEP is concerned about the potential for contamination at the Lanpher facility. PWSA has taken the reservoir offline while it addresses possible tears in a covering there. It also has been flushing lines and sustaining chlorine levels, the authority has reported.

PWSA is now routing water to the Lanpher service area directly through large pipelines from a treatment plant in Aspinwall, bypassing the reservoir.