Thousands of Key Biscayne residents lost water service late Saturday after a water main suffered a blow out, Manager Steve Williamson said.

Service had been restored for most areas by Sunday morning.

The outage caused a total lack of water for some homes and greatly reduced pressure for others, both single family and condominiums. The entire Key Colony complex — the largest on the island — had almost zero water pressure starting around 10 p.m., multiple residents reported. The village’s Garden district also lost water service. 

Water service was still out for an office building on Crandon, he said. 

Williamson said the sidewall of a 12-inch pipe near northwest Crandon Boulevard had blown out, according to information relayed by the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department (WASD). The rupture means a more extensive repair will be needed, because a new section of pipe will need to be delivered and installed — a process that in turn might lead to future service disruptions. 

Williamson said the water main break did not appear to be directly related to an earlier water main failure to the south on Mashta Island, which caused a four-to-five hour outage in that community  Friday. 

But he said Village public works staff had been noting an increasing number of water and sewer issues over the past year and that he was planning to send a formal letter of concern to Water and Sewer Department officials asking for a review of performance and maintenance issues. 

“It appears to me that we have had more impacts on the island than I would expect in a one-quare mile village,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Water and Sewer Department, reached Sunday, said more information would be provided later in the day.

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Editor-in-Chief

Tony Winton is the editor-in-chief of the Key Biscayne Independent and president of Miami Fourth Estate, Inc. He worked previously at The Associated Press for three decades winning multiple Edward R. Murrow awards. He was president of the News Media Guild, a journalism union, for 10 years. Born in Chicago, he is a graduate of Columbia University. His interests are photography and technology, sailing, cooking, and science fiction.