Mass. declares state of emergency after aqueduct break; 'boil-water' order issued for 1 million

[HughMoran]

Source: Boston Globe

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff, and Sean Teehan, Globe Correspondent

A major pipe bringing water to the Boston area has sprung a "catastrophic" leak and is dumping eight million gallons of water per hour into the Charles River. Governor Deval Patrick said he was declaring a state of emergency and issuing a "boil-water" order for Boston and dozens of other communities.

"The water is not suitable for drinking. ... All residents in impacted communities should boil drinking water before consuming it," he said at a news conference this afternoon.

Patrick said the state had asked bottled water companies to make more water available in the state and emergency drinking water supplies could also be made available to the affected communities through the National Guard.
...
The break is in a 10-foot-diameter pipe on Recreation Road in Weston, where the MWRA's MetroWest Water Supply Tunnel meets the City Tunnel, bringing water into Boston and other Massachusetts Water Resources Authority communities, the authority said in a statement.
...

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/05/catastrophic_le.html

---

Pretty serious situation here (I'm in Mass now) - restaurants and other businesses are closing & people are buying up bottled water!

[MadMaddie]

1. How old is the water infrastructure!

[SpiralHawk]

2. Pretty old - dates back to the 1930s

America's infrastructure continues to crumble -- much more to come...

[babylonsister]

3. ...the pipe that broke was installed in 2002...

towards end of article:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/05/catastrophic_le.html

[SpiralHawk]

4. whoa - 2002! - did Haliburton (R) do this job, too?

Sure sounds like it.

[virgogal]

13. Naaaah,probably The Big Dig guys.

[No Elephants]

40. Bechtel started The Big Dig. It's the other Halliburton. (Both were in Iraq.)

At some point, Romney's campaign contributors were doing most of the actual work. And, after a woman got killed in a tunnel, those same campaign contributors were the ones who inspected the job for safety.

Why Americans are not always marching on their state houses and Washington is beyond me.

[Paper Roses]

16. That was my thought! I live in one of the "boil" towns.

What a pain in the neck. This should never have happened. The construction was done at the time the big dig was going on. This was obviously the work of companies just as bad.

Boil to drink, brush, wash all fresh foods. And of course, there is no water to be bought.
Unless you watched TV or had the radio on, you would never know. I was just informed by a family member who gave me some water.

I'll boil up pans full and put it in the refrig. Authorities have no idea when this can be fixed. It is not a quick fix situation. 38 towns including Boston. Good grief.

[virgogal]

24. I got an auto-alert call from my town about 4:45.

[Old Troop]

21. Actually it sounds pretty typical for MA

[HughMoran]

7. Wow, I would not have expected that!

Somebody is in BIG trouble. Pipes from the 1930's have survived/are being replaced, but a new section fails in just 8 years? :wtf:

[babylonsister]

8. I hear you; it's relatively new. I wonder what other 'new' pipes are

waiting to bust?

[HughMoran]

9. If this was indeeed a structural failure & not induced externally somehow

...there could be some heads rolling - just like when the Big Dig roof fell on and killed a woman due to substandard epoxy. We got quality problems up here - lol.

[babylonsister]

12. I imagine they are all over, and have just surfaced first 'up there'. And

when I saw that date, I also thought of the 'big dig' and the substandard construction that caused that woman's death.

Sigh. So many problems...

[Old Troop]

22. I agree -- was there any construction nearby?

[MadMaddie]

11. Wow, I agree that is not what I expected!

Does this play to the cheap quality of products being made today?

[high density]

5. Believe it or not, this section of pipe is from 2002. NM

[Warpy]

6. Boiling water for 5 minutes kills even Mexican bugs

so the water is perfectly safe to cook with or to drink after it's been boiled and cooled.

When I lived on Cape Cod, the military contaminated the town wells to the point we were told not to bathe in it, only do quick showers. Boiling wouldn't help.

Eventually, they managed to get enough clean wells drilled to supply the town, but it was a water service in the meantime.

You do have my sympathy. Not having potable water sucks.

[virgogal]

14. I started boiling at 4:45 and have enough for a few days.

[Warpy]

18. You'll want to put it into a jar or bottle and shake it up

before you drink it, just to aerate it. It'll taste a bit better that way.

[virgogal]

23. Thanks for that info. I didn't know that.

[activa8tr]

10. Water (and lack of it) will be our downfall

Salt water ruined with oil.

Fresh water wasted by poor infrastructure.

Geeze, those Republicans left us open to all this, we have to get rid of Republicans.

ABC news making this President a laughing stock. I hate ABC and Jake Tapper.

Let's make sure Jake is relegated to the realm of Glenn Beck ASAP.

Send ABC news an email, send Boston Channel 5 an email, tell them to stop sniping at Obama and Patrick.. these problems were created by Republicans letting big business do their own thing and screwing the taxpayer.

[Synicus Maximus]

29. I thought Mass. has a Democratic Governor and mostly Democratic

Legislature.

[NecklyTyler]

15. Not to worry, nothing like this could ever happen at a nuclear power plant

Chernobyl and Three Mile Island were just flukes

[rox63]

17. There are 30+ cities and towns around Boston also affected

I hear there is a big run on bottled water all over eastern MA.

[polmaven]

19. Mayor Mumbles Marino

just stated that Boston restaurants WILL BE OPEN tonight, and there was some video of bottled water being deliver sd to some of them.

[HughMoran]

26. that's Menino

... That's a good idea actually - better than losing all that business

[Old Troop]

20. Do you know what cities/towns are affected?

[virgogal]

25. Here you go.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/05/boiled_water_or.html

[AlbertCat]

27. You don't need to play "3rd World" anymore.... LIVE IT!!! Fun, huh?

[virgogal]

28. Boiling water for drinking is hardly 3rd world,it is a minor inconvenience.

[HughMoran]

30. True, having a backup system is actually quite 1st world

I could hear the pump at a DPW station that was helping supply backup water to nearby towns that share an emergency supply with non-MWRA towns.

[Xipe Totec]

31. I tried to boil my ice cubes for five minutes

but they melted.

Fuck that.

I'm drinking my Long Island Iced Tea with unboiled ice cubes.

[depakid]

36. Meh, just use one of these:

http://www.cascadedesigns.com/msr/water-treatment-and-hydration/category

I rarely travel anywhere without it.

[Bonobo]

32. As the road manager in Spinal Tap said:

Ian Faith : Yeah. I wouldn't worry about it though, it's not a big college town"

[Elmore Furth]

33. 'Boil-water' order issued for nearly 2 million in Mass. -- 'Catastrophic' pipe rupture

Source: Boston Globe

A major pipe bringing water to the Boston area has sprung a "catastrophic" leak and is dumping eight million gallons of water per hour into the Charles River. Governor Deval Patrick declared a state of emergency and issued a "boil-water" order for Boston and dozens of other communities.

The break is in a 10-foot-diameter pipe on Recreation Road in Weston, the authority said in a statement.

"That is a catastrophic break and we are currently activating the reserves," said MWRA spokeswoman Ria Convery. MWRA officials said nearly two million people would be affected in 30 cities and towns.

The MWRA system provides water to a total 48 communities, according to the authority's website. The water comes from the Quabbin Reservoir, 65 miles west of Boston, and the Wachusett Reservoir, 35 miles west of Boston, and flows through aqueducts east into the Boston area.



Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/05/catastrophic_le.html

[myrna minx]

34. K&R n.t

[Systematic Chaos]

35. Sure is a good thing we don't need to invest trillions into infrastructure instead of wars.

:shrug:

[Tesha]

37. This morning, the TV news showed workers welding up a huge coupling ring.

It sounds like that's the replacement for the part that failed, and
they now have hopes of getting this thing squared-away reasonably
quickly. WBZ-TV just showed the actual point of failure and all looks
well except for the fact that the old coupling was completely gone
(missing?). The old rubber gasket was recovered, though.

They intend to place the new coupling (welding it in?), and then
entomb it in concrete.

The boil water order will probably last a few more days, though, as
they purge the entire piping system of the backup water and its
(hypothetical) contaminants.

Tesha

[Chemical Bill]

38. The backup water is untreated.

The water really is contaminated, and I bet the boil order is in place for at least a week. They haven't been announcing that the water is anything different than what is usually in the pipes, local news leaves something to be desired. The head of the MWRA was on this morning, and said that what is in the pipes now is "lake water".

Bill

[HughMoran]

39. It appears that a coupling between pipes may have failed

If the pipes themselves are still structurally sound, they may be able to install a new coupler and be back in business within days versus weeks...