14
   

Boston, don't drink the water!

 
 
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 05:11 am

Major Water Main Break in Bahstin...

we have been on a Boil Order since 6pm last night due to a ‘catastrophic’ rupture in a large water pipe in weston, MA.

Quote:
Nearly 2 million residents of Greater Boston lost their supply of clean drinking water when a huge pipe abruptly burst yesterday, prompting authorities to declare a state of emergency and to impose a sweeping order for homeowners and businesses to boil the untreated water now flowing from their taps.

Governor Deval Patrick said residents in Boston and 29 other communities east of Weston should boil water for at least a minute before drinking it to avoid the risk of getting sick. He also asked bottled water companies and the National Guard to help make clean water available to residents in the affected communities.

The crisis began around 10 a.m. yesterday when a 10-foot-wide pipe in Weston sprang a leak, which worsened throughout the afternoon and eventually cut off Greater Boston from the Quabbin Reservoir, where most of its water supply is stored.

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority said it could continue supplying water by activating a backup system that began drawing water last night from the Sudbury Reservoir, and can also tap into the Weston and Spot Pond reservoirs if necessary. The backup water, which one official compared with “untreated pond water,’’ can be used for bathing and flushing toilets, but not for drinking or cooking.

Authorities said they were attempting to set up mobile units to chlorinate the backup water supply, but they cautioned that even so, the water from the backup system would not meet federal drinking water standards.

“This is everyone’s worst nightmare in the water industry,’’ said Frederick A. Laskey, executive director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/05/02/a_catastrophic_rupture_hits_regions_water_system/
 
jespah
 
  1  
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 05:53 am
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/02/national/main6452869.shtml

Quote:
Officials remained puzzled by the cause, since the break occurred in a stretch of pipe that was just seven years old.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/MetroPhotos04/10/water_tunnel_break_050110.jpg

More info here.
jespah
 
  2  
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 06:12 am
@jespah,
They ain't kiddin' about the boil water restrictions, folks.
0 Replies
 
squinney
 
  2  
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 08:11 am
Ewww! Untreated? Boil? No thanks. I wouldn't even turn on the tap since once it is fixed you still would have had that water running through your pipes.

Rockhead
 
  2  
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 08:16 am
@squinney,
nahhh.

once it's fixed, they always put extry chemicals in it so it is "safe" again...

Shocked
dadpad
 
  2  
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 09:06 am
Easy peasy
http://media.rd.com/rd/images/rdc/slideshows/st-patricks-day-beer/st-patricks-beer-sam-adams-boston-lager-ss.jpg
0 Replies
 
dyslexia
 
  2  
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 09:09 am
@Rockhead,
Rockhead wrote:

nahhh.

once it's fixed, they always put extry chemicals in it so it is "safe" again...

Shocked
better living through chemistry.
0 Replies
 
littlek
 
  2  
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 09:40 am
Stop by a friend's place in Cambridge (ehem). We are NOT on boil-water orders. We get our water exclusive-like. I didn't even HEAR about this until after midnight last night.

The main broke at 10 am. Saturday. Seems like a bad lag between 10 am break and the 6pm message Jes and Region got!
jespah
 
  1  
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 10:28 am
@littlek,
Yeah ... not a good thing.

We have lotsa berled water. Tea, anyone?
jespah
 
  1  
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 10:38 am
@jespah,
Leak identified, repairs underway - no ETA on when we can start drinking the H20 again.

No, we do not need softening.
0 Replies
 
George
 
  3  
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 03:21 pm
Thank God I'm stocked up on beer.
0 Replies
 
George
 
  2  
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 03:26 pm
Boston.com wrote:
Yesterday, supplies of bottled water in stores throughout the region
dwindled and in a sure sign Greater Bostonians lives had been disrupted,
scores of Dunkin' Donuts had no coffee for sale.

"Dwindled", my ass.
They frikkin vanished.
hawkeye10
 
  2  
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 03:42 pm
let's hope they get to the bottom of what went wrong. Given the history of modern public works projects in Boston my assumption is that poor quality work not caught by government inspectors is the root cause of this failure.
George
 
  2  
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 03:44 pm
@hawkeye10,
Ya think?
jespah
 
  1  
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 04:08 pm
@George,
Governor Patrick is thinking the whole shebang will be resolved in days, not weeks.

I got networking events to go to. They'll be verra interesting if it's Sam Adams instead of water at 'em, particularly the lunch meetings. Shocked
hawkeye10
 
  1  
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 04:15 pm
@jespah,
Quote:

Governor Patrick is thinking the whole shebang will be resolved in days, not weeks.
Better hope so...if the whole tunnel is defective, and if they can't get the old tunnel back online before the current plan of 2014, this could be bad.
0 Replies
 
littlek
 
  2  
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 05:02 pm
Woohoo! You have a friend here in Cambridge! No tap water shortage here (though the bottles are gone).

Er... it just dawned on me that I have to go to work in such a tapless town. So... what are the rules? Is it ok for hand washing?
littlek
 
  2  
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 05:09 pm
@littlek,
Looks like hand washing is ok.... hmmm... I think I'll stick with hand sanitizer tomorrow.
ossobuco
 
  2  
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 05:40 pm
@littlek,
Yeh, but there's some stuff in hand sanitizer that is now questionable (no link, sorry).

Soap and hot water is nice, it does get rid of some bacteria. Plain water does too. Alcohol, said to be in hand sanitizers, eh, we tested it on skin patches in school. Dismissible as more effective. Some substances are not bacteriocidal, but bacteriostatic, and there are questions about resistance making. Plus, on us alcohol didn't work that well. What did, back then, was phenol, or iodine.
This is old observation - but I'm not so automatically thrilled about the sanitizer stuff, much less most of the products in the home cleaning aisle of the grocery store.

You guys'll be fine. I might worry wort if I was substantially immune depressed.
ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Sun 2 May, 2010 05:45 pm
@ossobuco,
That was about handwashing - not about drinking the water.
0 Replies
 
 

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