Acknowledging that getting the city’s aging water system back online and its contents safe-to-drink is a slow and complicated process, Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski is asking for residents’ patience.
Friday, a major water main bust beneath Thomaston Ave. left all of Waterbury without service for a time. Now, 60% of the city is without service and 40% has water that’s not safe to drink unless it’s boiled first.
“We shut everything down (Friday),” said Waterbury water superintendent Brad Malay early Monday afternoon. “There was no alternative… We were going to destroy the homes and businesses, roadways: Everything was going to be destroyed if we didn’t shut everything down.”
Crews worked overnight into Monday installing an emergency valve to bypass the break. That means water “could” begin to flow as soon as Monday night.
But officials say pipes will be refilled slowly so no further damage is created, and even when they’re full, all of the city will remain under a boil water order until at least Wednesday.
“You might not see water for hours and hours and hours,” added Malay. “We can’t just force water down the line, because air and water in pipelines causes problems. It causes breaks.”
Residents without water service are being asked to open their tub spigots to let the air out.
Malay says it will take a while for the flowing water to run clear enough to provide acceptable samples for testing. Then, test results take a full day to come back. The boil water order will continue until those results come back clean.
Responding to reports that some Waterbury restaurants have been open in the interims, the city’s Health Department says they should not be, unless they have their own source of potable water.
Waterbury schools will remain closed Tuesday.
City-run distribution of bottled water for drinking was paused Monday afternoon due to delayed delivery trucks, but was expected to continue at Municipal Stadium, 1200 Watertown Avenue, and Crosby High School, 300 Pierpont Road. The sites had given out 44,000 gallons of water as of noon Monday.
Residents who are unable to travel to the distribution sites should call 311 to arrange for delivery.
The Greater Waterbury YMCA is offering special “shower hours” to those in need. A photo i.d. and reservation is required. It’s open through 7 pm Monday and in several phases Tuesday: 6-8 am, 12-3 pm and 5-7 pm. There’s more information at (203) 754-9622.
Once Waterbury’s water service is fully restored, Pernerewski says he doesn’t expect more system-wide failures:
“The (water) system is old. It’s been here for a long time. We are taking steps now… $30 million in the last year to do upgrades to various parts of it, but you can’t replace the whole thing at once.”