The water main in front of 100 High Street broke this morning around 9 AM. DIGSAFE has been notified and the crew is on the way to replace the broken main.  Repair work will begin once the underground utilites are marked.

Water service to portions of Boston Street, High Street and all of Woodbrier Lane and Dover Hill Road will be off until the pipe is repaired.  We expect the water will be off for most of the day depending on what we find once the pipe is uncovered.

If your water is discolored run the cold water until it clears before using any hot water.

5:30 PM Update: Due to the number of breaks in the area we're adding a hydrant and some extra valves to make it easier to isolate and flush this section of main.  The new pipe, valves and hydrant have been installed and the crew is now installing joint restraints and a thrust block.  Water service should be back to normal in a couple of hours.  The attached image shows the 8" concrete pipe that let go.  One of the worst breaks we've seen.  Luckily it was during the day and an operator was already at the treatment plant so it didn't take long to turn it off.

7:00 Update: Water service is being restored.

Our water system uses groundwater wells to supply water for our customers.  The water undergoes a variety of treatment processes to improve its quality in order to meet drinking water regulations. 

The first process is natural filtration through the sand and gravel deposits near the wells.  As water travels from the land surface towards the wells, the naturally occuring sand and gravel deposits filter out many contaminants including coliform bacteria, vegetative debris, and others that are commonly found on the surface of the ground or in nearby surface water bodies.

Once the water is in our supply system it travels to the water treatment plant for additional treatment including disinfection, pH adjustment, greensand filtration, aeration, fluoridation and sequestration/corrosion control.  The raw water is treated in the following order:

We conduct hundreds of water quality tests each year. Results are now available on our Water Quality Site which includes information about which water sources are in use. The site has been under development for several years and more functionality will be added as time permits.