75 percent of Fayetteville loses water pressure

[Pete]

75 percent of Fayetteville loses water pressure

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=7897118

FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- Fayetteville's Public Works Commission said a large water main break left a large part of the community without water Thursday night.

The PWC estimated 75 percent of its customers were affected by the problem at the Hoffer Water Plant.

A news release from the PWC at 9 p.m. said water services were returning as water tanks refilled and the pressure came back up on the system.

An official boil water advisory was issued because of the loss of pressure in the system.

The advisory is expected to stay in affect 48 hours (through Sunday morning) until all water testing is completed.

PWC water customers east of the Cape Fear River (Stedman, Eastover, Cedar Creek) and approximately a ½ mile radius of downtown are not affected or advised to boil water..............."

Just a FYI for the Cumberland County Folks - in case you didn't notice the drop in pressure.

I noticed the drop, called a couple of friends in town - all without water - and ran down to Food Lion to load up on bottled water. Two other folks were doing the same.

We tried to warn a few folks about it but got the "Eat Shit and Die" look. Oh, well. Many here in town had better be glad this will be a short outage.

[Buffalobob]

For those who are curious and don't know, the reason for a boil water notice after a pressure drop is as follows:

A drinking water pipe system is not necessarily water tight. As long as it is under 40 + psi internal pressure the flow of water will always be from inside the pipe to the outside if there is a leak. Once the pressure falls, ground water may begin leaking into the pipe. This can allow the introduction of disease causing organisms. The groundwater may be contaminated from many sources including septic tanks etc. There are even many instances when the drinking water pipe is buried in the same trench as the sewage pipes which are far from water tight. There are design specs for such cases but in areas where the groundwater is high seasonally this is a concern under low pressure scenarios. And then there is the Saturday afternoon sixpack plumber who has been to get a case of beer and then to Home Depot and some how manages to plumb his commode so it comes out the drinking water facet (true story). If you live next to this guy he has the potential of contaminating your house when pressure falls.

The reason boiled water tastes bad is two fold. First is that you are a lousy cook and can't even boil water :D and secondly is that you drive off the dissolved air. You can use a mixer to froth the water back up after it cools and it will taste better. If you are going to keep some boiled water around for a few days then you should keep it in the refrigerator so bacteria do not grow in it.

The people most at risk from contaminated water are infants whose immune system is not fully active and other suppressed immune system people.

P.S. All hospitals are required to have a back up water supply just for cases such as this.

[MovingTarget]

FYI,

The boil water advisory has been lifted.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=7901392

FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- The Fayetteville Public Works Commission lifted a boil-order for its water customers on Sunday.

Officials say tests have confirmed that water now meets safe drinking standards. Water is safe to use for any purpose and it is no longer necessary to boil water before using it.

Fayetteville PWC first issued a boil advisory on Thursday, when a water main ruptured. Officials said bacteria could have contaminated the water supply through that break.

PWC Officials say it tested 32 locations throughout the system on Friday after the water system was restored and operational.

On Saturday, an inconclusive test result made it necessary to extend the advisory until all areas were confirmed to be clear.

PWC tested 3 areas in and around the inconclusive test location to insure all water was safe for its customers.

Those test results confirmed early Sunday evening that no contamination was present.

[Buffalobob]

There has never been a compelling argument made for watertight sewer lines so they are not. The older pipes put in the ground 100 years ago just have a bell at one end that the next pipe slides up into and there is no gasket of any type. These pipe were made of vitrified clay or concrete and so when you do not make any effort to seal the joint it leaks. If the ground water is high then groundwater will enter the sewer line and go to the Sewage Treatment Plant and your water bill will increase because of the cost of treating groundwater.

Lots of communities have found it cost effective to seal the joints so that infiltration of groundwater is reduced and they received grants from EPA to do this. With the newer control limits on sewage discharges it is very expensive to treat clean groundwater mixed with sewage. One of the large costs at a sewage treatment plant is energy and pumping around large volumes of diluted water is costly.

New sewer lines now have rubber gaskets and do not leak as much either in or out.

Estimates of how much the old un-gasketed 100 years old sewer currently leak range from about 20% to 50 % of their contents if they were above groundwater level. So up to half of the sewage never ever reached the treatment facility. This may or may not be a terribly important problem as it just means that the pipe acts like the drain field of a septic tank system. However in densely populated cities you can get into problems if groundwater levels fluctuate enough o push to the surface during wet parts of the year.

In my early years in the profession what I did was review specifications for sewer lines, septic tanks and drainfields, sewage treatment plants. About 80% of my work was straight civil engineering. As the really bad first order problems were solved of getting good drinking water to the cities and treating the resultant sewage enough that it did not kill the fish when discharged to the river, my work changed into dealing with more complicated issues such as toxic chemicals and a lot less civil engineering was involved and I had to learn a lot of biochemical stuff.