Syracuse, NY – Onondaga County will distribute up to 4,000 cases of bottled water Friday to residents of towns affected by a burst water main this month.
According to officials, no one ran out of water and water supplies in the six affected cities are still sufficient to meet current demand.
“We are stable thanks to all the efforts of our customers, as well as the operational changes we have made and the support of our other water companies,” said Jeff Brown, executive director of the Onondaga County Water Authority.
Work to replace the 134-foot section of transmission line has begun and will continue until the project is complete, Brown said. According to him, the agency will have a better idea of how long the work will take on Friday.
Friday’s water distribution is a proactive way for residents to conserve water, said Justin Sayles, director of communications for County Executive Ryan McMahon.
The distribution will take place Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Fayetteville-Manlius High School, 8201 E. Seneca Turnpike, Manlius. Drivers must enter from North Eagle Village Road and turn south onto Pride Lane.
A 42-inch-diameter transmission line in Cicero failed on Dec. 20 despite several attempts by OCWA over the previous month to repair it. While work to replace the pipes continues, residents of the six towns are being asked to continue to conserve water to reduce demand.
The towns are DeWitt, Manlius, Pompey, Sullivan, Lenox and Lincoln.
The 27,000 customers in those cities typically use about 5 million gallons a day this time of year, but have reduced their usage to about 3.5 million gallons. This is the amount that OCWA was able to deliver to the reservoirs each day by connecting to other water systems and making changes to the OCWA system.
National Grid moved a power line that was in the way of a jackhammer machine that hammers 40-foot-tall sheets into the ground to trap groundwater.
Brown said about a third of the retaining walls have already been built and that drillers will begin drilling 36-inch holes today to draw water from around the pipeline.
The record snowfall this week didn’t slow down work, Brown said, although crews driving steel sheets into the ground had to stop at times because of strong wind gusts.
The cities of Syracuse and Oneida each provide 800,000 gallons, and OCWA installed temporary pumps in Otisco Lake.
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 disconnected the pipeline.
Leave a Reply