Syracuse, NY – The Onondaga County Water Authority will spend the weekend preparing to repair a ruptured transmission line Monday, with work crews and equipment streaming in from as far away as Texas.
Officials said water flowing into the system, which supplies six towns east of the ruptured line, was still equal to usage. This means that no one is likely to run out of water in these cities just yet.
That balance still depends on businesses and residents continuing to limit water use, officials said.
“Right now it looks like the situation has at least stabilized,” said Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon. “We’ve had about three days in a row of net use where the new water that’s diverted into the system is essentially what’s being withdrawn.”
Work to replace the 134 feet of pipe will begin in real Monday. That’s when crews begin hammering 40-foot-tall sheets of steel into the ground to create an underground sump around the damaged site. The ram that did the job arrived today, said Jeff Brown, executive director of the water agency.
The work will last until the week of Jan. 5, Brown said.
Schools will reopen Jan. 5 after the holidays, but there is no talk of closing schools that week, McMahon said.
“Schools will open based on the conditions we know today,” McMahon said. “If something changes, we all have the ability to turn around.”
While schools use water, it’s much less than commercial users, Brown said. In addition, children at school do not use water at home, as they do now during breaks.
“With schools in session, our residential demand will drop,” he said. “I think it’s the laundry.
While the cost of the repair is not yet known, it will be in the millions, Brown said. Drilling 36-inch holes and running 10 pumps to drain the site alone will cost over $1 million, he said.
Brown said OCWA has enough money in the bank to cover costs and won’t need to borrow.
The district has received 30,000 cases of water but is delaying mass distribution until at least next week, McMahon said.
To keep water flowing to homes and businesses, OCWA worked with neighboring water systems to bring additional water online. The cities of Syracuse and Oneida each provided 800,000 gallons, and OCWA installed temporary pumps in Otisco Lake. Brown said the agency also plans to install about 900 feet of pipe along Fly Road and a shorter section along Malloy Road to bring water from Lake Ontario OCWA to DeWitt.
While the agency makes temporary repairs, it is preparing to replace the main transmission line starting Monday.
Over the weekend, equipment and supplies will continue to arrive at the site on Wheatley Road, just off Northern Boulevard. Iron pipe sections are being sourced from Alabama, sleeves and fittings are on their way from Texas, and steel, emergency pumps and pipe adapters are being sourced from New York, OCWA said.
About 50 to 75 people will be on site to complete the work in a matter of weeks, which would normally take a month, Brown said.
OCWA has been dealing with water leaks in the same area since at least the summer when a main transmission line valve leaked. This was fixed in August; in November, the first leak in the main line was found 30 feet from the valve repair. Brown said the two are not related.
The agency fixed that November leak, but a nearby main pipe sprung two more leaks in December. Temporary fixes failed, and on December 20, OCWA shut off the pipeline, cutting off water to 27,000 users.
These homes and businesses are in Manlius, DeWitt, Pompey, Sullivan, Lenox and Lincoln.
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