NOT A DROP TO DRINK
Still not fixed: Rain, reluctant valves delay emergency repairs Drinking water: Free bottled water offered to area residents
With open fire hydrants, constant rain and skids of plastic bottles, clean water was everywhere but coming out of faucets Thursday as borough and West Pottsgrove customers faced their second day with interrupted water service.
Repairs on the 20-inch water main that was broken Wednesday by construction crews working to replace the King Street bridge over the Manatawny Creek had not even begun Thursday.
Efforts Wednesday to close a valve in the middle of Manatawny and King streets to stop the flow
of water so repairs could begin were only partially successful.
Thursday afternoon, borough crews were still working on the backup plan, which is to close two valves in the middle of King and York streets to shut off water further down the line.
The exercising of those valves was taking place Thursday afternoon in order to loosen them for a repair push Friday, according to Borough Manager Justin Keller.
And exercise it was, with three men pushing and pulling on the cross bars of a shaft attached to the valve header — and making little progress.
“We could not get into the trench today due to the rain
and concerns about possible flooding of the creek. Crews were out today exercising valves in preparation for a limited shutdown of the area tomorrow when we are going to make another attempt to conduct the final repair,” Keller wrote Thursday in an email reply to a Mercury query.
“Shutdown will likely happen sometime after noon (Friday), but we are not sure of the exact timing or the extent of areas impacted by the shutdown yet,” Keller wrote. “It will probably last at minimum of four hours, but it could be longer and it could be intermittently on and off for a period of time as well,” he warned.
“Beginning around 8 a.m., the intersection at Manatawny and King streets will be closed to vehicle traffic and detoured. We will keep everyone updated through the website and social media,” wrote Keller.
Keller said a supply of bottled water has been set aside for the homes that will be without any water due to Friday’s planned shutdown for repairs.
Because of the drop in pressure caused by the leak, water that does come
out of the tap has an increased chance of having biological contamination and so the borough’s “boil water” notice for an area from Grosstown Road in the west; Armand Hammer Boulevard in the east; the Schuylkill River in the south to East Street in the north remains in effect until repairs are complete and testing indicates the water is safe to drink and use for hand and dishwashing.
Additionally, although the North Coventry Water Authority has not experienced a loss of positive water pressure due to the break, it nonetheless has issued a boil water advisory to its customers, just as a precaution.
“A loss of positive water
pressure is a signal of the existence of conditions that could allow contamination to enter the distribution system back-flow by backpressure of back-siphonage. As a result, there is an increased chance that the water may contain diseasecausing organisms,” the authority told its customers.
“Bring all water to a rolling boil, let it boil for one minute, and cool before using, or use bottled water. Residents should use boiled or bottled water for drinking, making ice, washing dishes, brushing teeth, and food preparation until further notice,” according to directions issued Montgomery County.
“The boil water advisory will remain in place until
pressure is restored and two consecutive days of sampling are negative for total coliform bacteria and with compliant chorine residuals,” according to the county notice.
The rain poured steadily on those working Thursday to return service to normal in a year where that word has been painfully hard to find.
Covered by a blue popup tent like you might find at an art fair, one borough worker who had worked overnight smiled grimly when asked if the Irish beer he had cooling
in his fridge to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day had been cracked yet.
“Not yet,” he replied simply as he and two others leaned into turning the shaft attached to the reluctant water line valve in the middle of King and York streets.
“I’m soaked and on my second set of clothes,” said Tyler Moyer, a firefighter and emergency medical technician with Goodwill.
He was among four standing under the firehouse eaves in a vain attempt to keep dry.
But the steady stream
of cars driving up to be loaded with their share of bottled water didn’t leave much chance for that.
By 4 p.m., the firefighters had already gone through 10 of the 30 skids of bottled water delivered to the firehouse.
Some of that water was delivered in person to homes along Manatawny, Chestnut, Walnut and Second streets which have been most affected by the drop in water pressure.
“We left it on their porch if there was no one home,” said firefighter Mark Gibson.