Syracuse, N.Y. — Onondaga County will hand out up to 4,000 cases of bottled water on Friday to residents in towns affected by a ruptured water line this month.
No one has run out of water, officials say, and the water supply in the six affected towns is still enough to meet current demand.
“We’re holding steady thanks to all the efforts of our customers as well as the operational changes that we’ve made and the support from our other water utilities,” said Jeff Brown, executive director of the Onondaga County Water Authority.
Work to replace a 134-foot section of the transmission line has begun and will continue until the project is done, Brown said. The agency will have a better idea on Friday how long the work will take, he said.
Friday’s water distribution is a proactive way for residents to keep conserving water, said Justin Sayles, communications director for County Executive Ryan McMahon.
The distribution will happen 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at Fayetteville-Manlius High School, 8201 E. Seneca Turnpike, Manlius. Drivers must enter from North Eagle Village Road and turn south on Pride Lane.
The 42-inch-diameter transmission line in Cicero failed Dec. 20 despite several attempts by OCWA over the previous month to repair it. While work proceeds on replacing the pipe, residents in six towns are asked to continue to conserve water to reduce demand.
The towns are DeWitt, Manlius, Pompey, Sullivan, Lenox and Lincoln.
The 27,000 customers in those towns typically use about 5 million gallons a day this time of year, but have reduced their usage to about 3.5 million gallons. That’s the amount OCWA has been able to deliver to reservoirs each day by tapping into other water systems and making changes to the OCWA system.
National Grid has moved power lines that were in the way of the pile driver machine, which pounds 40-foot-high sheets of metal into the ground to trap groundwater.
Brown said about a third of the retaining walls have been put into place already, and that drills will begin boring 36-inch-diameter holes today to pump water from around the pipe.
The record-breaking snowfall this week hasn’t slowed down the work, Brown said, although crews driving the steel sheets into the ground had to stop occasionally due to strong wind gusts.
The cities of Syracuse and Oneida are each providing 800,000 gallons, and OCWA has installed temporary pumps in Otisco Lake.
OCWA has been battling water leaks in the same area since at least summer, when a valve off the main transmission line leaked. That was repaired in August; in November, the first leak in the main line was found 30 feet away from the valve repair. Brown said the two were unrelated.
The agency fixed that November leak, but the main pipe sprung two more leaks nearby in December. Temporary fixes failed, and on Dec. 20, OCWA shut off the pipe.