PWSA flush, boil water advisory lifted
The Pittsburgh Water & Sewer authority has ended the precautionary flush and boil water advisory in place in seven of Pittsburgh’s East End communities since an arterial water main ruptured Sunday night.
The advisory was lifted at 5:07 p.m. Tuesday and had affected approximately 7,000 homes, businesses, hospitals and schools in parts of Bloomfield, Central Lawrenceville, East Liberty, Friendship, Garfield, Highland Park, Morningside and Shadyside.
PWSA recommends that customers using their water for the first time in several days run their taps for at least one minute before using it for cooking or drinking. This helps remove stagnant water from plumbing and brings in fresh water from water mains.
PWSA said two rounds of bacteriological tests found no contamination in the water supply in the neighborhoods affected. Will Pickering, a PWSA spokesman, said regulations require that the water sampling and testing occur 24 hours apart and the state Department of Environmental Protection must sign off on the results.
Mr. Pickering said the first round of sampling was done Sunday, and test results reported Monday afternoon showed no contamination of the water supply. The second sampling was done Monday afternoon with the results reported Tuesday afternoon to the PWSA and the DEP.
The rupture of the 20-inch water main at Centre and South Negley avenues early Sunday caused street flooding in the area and low water pressure.
Repairs to the water main were completed Tuesday morning, and PWSA customers along Centre, roughly between South Negley and South Euclid avenues, had their water restored late Tuesday morning, Mr. Pickering said.
Centre Avenue from South Negley to South Euclid will remain closed to traffic, including pedestrians, the PWSA said, until street cleanup and restoration work is completed, sometime on Thursday.
The boil water advisory is the third such advisory issued by the PWSA this year.
The first, in late January, was issued after the DEP raised concerns about water treatment at the Highland Park Reservoir and impacted about 100,000 city residents.
In August, a second advisory was issued for approximately 18,000 residential customers, following questions about water treatment at the Lanpher Reservoir in Shaler.
Robert Weimar, PWSA’s interim executive director, said
no water supply contamination was detected in either situation.
Mr. Weimar is unaware of any previous boil water advisories issued by PWSA, and said the advisories this year have stemmed from two factors: deterioration in the water system and more rigorous water-quality standards from state and federal regulators.
“PWSA sincerely appreciates the public’s patience and we understand the hardship endured by all during this challenging event. Our priority at PWSA is, and will always be, providing safe drinking water to our customers, ”Mr. Weimar said.
“We acknowledge that there is much work to do to fix our aging and deteriorating infrastructure,” he said. “Our focus is to make the needed improvements and expedite the process to rebuild our network of pipes and the water distribution system. After decades of neglect, we’re beginning to put inplace the financial and human resources to renew our systems as efficiently and as effectively as possible.”
City Councilman Dan Gilman, whose district includes the water main break and also many residents who went through the January advisory, said similar system problems in past years had not led to boil warnings.
“I think it’s obviously frustrating,” Mr. Gilman said. But he hopes “they recognize [the advisory] is being done out of an overabundance of caution for their health.”
Mayor Bill Peduto said he expects a panel’s recommendations by Dec. 31 for strengthening the water system. Estimates put its immediate capital needs at more than $1 billion after decades of lackluster upkeep.
Mr. Peduto warned that customers should expect more inconveniences until wholesale improvements take shape.
“We are going to take every effort to err on the side of caution,” the mayor said.