Syracuse, NY – Residents and businesses in some Onondaga and Madison county towns could run out of water by Sunday unless residents and businesses step up their conservation efforts, officials said today.
Some areas could be out of water “for some time” this weekend due to a ruptured transmission line in Cicero, Jeff Brown, executive director of the Onondaga County Water Authority, said at a news conference this afternoon.
The areas most at risk of water loss are the southern part of the Village of Manlius, the northern part of the Town of Pompey and parts of the Village of Fayetteville, officials said.
But water users in six towns in Onondaga and Madison counties must continue to curtail the area to keep the area at risk of losing water from the growth.
“There are no guarantees that other parts of the system will not be affected,” said Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon, who called the burst a “crisis.”
Levels in water reservoirs supplying six cities continue to drop after a major transmission line recently burst, officials said. The two large tanks at Manlius, which hold a combined 50 million gallons, are down to 18% of their capacity. They were at 20% on Monday, Brown said.
The good news, Brown said, is that reservoir water levels are dropping more slowly than a few days ago and that the areas that could lose water are shrinking in size.
“Conservation helps, there’s no doubt about that, because our main storage facility is going down slower than normal,” Brown said. “But the bad news, it’s still going down.
The six towns affected by the fault are Manlius, DeWitt, Pompey, Sullivan, Lenox and Lincoln.
Brown said the six cities typically use about 5 million gallons of water a day. That number has dropped to about 4 million, he said, but needs to drop to 3.5 million gallons to prevent anyone from running out of water.
OCWA has created a mosaic of emergency water supplies. The agency draws additional water from Lake Otisco and Lake Skaneateles to supply both reservoirs. In addition, the city of Oneida’s water system sends water to Canastota and Chittenango, relieving pressure on OCWA to supply Madison County villages.
OCWA even laid a 400-foot-long temporary water line overnight to bring in water from another part of its system, Brown said.
Businesses large and small are taking steps to use less water, officials said. Byrne Dairy in DeWitt brings in tankers of water. Lotte Biologics, a pharmaceutical company in East Syracuse, said it changed its process to use less water. And a medical facility in DeWitt, which Brown declined to name, has rented portable toilets for staff so patients can continue to use indoor restrooms.
Repairing the break is a complicated process that could take two weeks, officials said. Brown said OCWA has obtained the steel sheeting it will need to help stabilize the wet ground. Those sheets are driven 40 feet into the ground, he said.
The fix will require digging a 150-foot-long trench and pumping out excess groundwater with 10 pumps before backfilling and laying a new pipe.
The county is preparing to transport water in tankers and bottles if needed, said Dan Wears, the county’s emergency management commissioner. McMahon said Tops Markets and Kinney Drugs provided water that could be distributed soon if needed.
“We procured and secured thousands of gallons of water bottles to go out to the public for drinking water,” McMahon said. “If there are affected areas, we will be able to get you water. There’s no reason to think you won’t have water.”
The village of Fayetteville will have one large water tanker on standby for firefighting purposes and could bring in more if needed, Fire Chief Paul Hildreth said.
OCWA and the county will hold another news conference at noon Wednesday to provide an update.
Leave a Reply