Syracuse, N.Y. \u2014 If residents and businesses in six Central New York towns affected by a water pipe rupture keep using water as normal, some could run out of drinking water in less than a week and some businesses could be temporarily shut down, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said today.<\/p>\n
McMahon said the Onondaga County Water Authority can provide about five to six days of water at current usage in the six towns, but it could take two weeks to repair the pipe.<\/p>\n
That means both businesses and people in the towns, including DeWitt, Manlius and Pompey, need to conserve now, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to do better or else we have serious challenges ahead,\u201d McMahon said at a news conference late this afternoon. \u201cTo be crystal clear, if the amount of gallons per day do not change out of this service area, there will be days where there will likely not be water.\u201d<\/p>\n
Residents in the area have started receiving public safety alerts on their phones that read: \u201cOCWA has announced a major water break that requires a mandatory water conservation order.\u201d<\/p>\n
OCWA Executive Director Jeff Brown said the water authority is monitoring usage after issuing an alert Saturday that a 42-inch diameter pipe burst and water reserves for the six towns quickly fell.<\/p>\n
He said the next steps in conservation guidance and orders will be dictated by how people and businesses react in the coming days.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next several days will be very, very telling,\u201d Brown said. \u201cAre we getting the level of water conservation that we need to keep everybody in water, or are people continuing to operate as normal? That will be really the tipping point.\u201d<\/p>\n
OCWA has already told car washes to shut down for now. McMahon said the county could use its emergency powers to temporarily close water-using businesses such as restaurants and coffee shops.<\/p>\n
McMahon said the county is preparing for the possibility that water could run out. The county has secured sufficient drinking water for the affected area, he said.<\/p>\n
OCWA announced over the weekend that the transmission main ruptured in Cicero and would need to be replaced. That pipe carried about 5 million gallons a day of Lake Ontario water to the six towns.<\/p>\n
Those towns are DeWitt, Manlius, Pompey, Sullivan, Lenox and Lincoln.<\/p>\n
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The Onondaga County Water Authority has issued mandatory conservatoin measures in six towns in Onondaga and Madison County communities to conserve water after a major break in a transmission main on Saturday.Central New York\u2019s Water Authority<\/p>\n
The agency is scrambling to repair the ruptured concrete pipe that delivers water to 27,000 customer accounts in those towns. The complicated repair could take two weeks, Brown said. It\u2019s the first major problem for that section of pipe since it was built in the 1960s.<\/p>\n
Right now, water is being supplied to those areas from a storage facility in Cicero that has about 10 million gallons of water, or about 20% of its normal capacity. OCWA is pumping extra water into those tanks from other sources, but not fast enough to keep up with the usual demand.<\/p>\n
To keep refilling the tanks, OCWA is getting water from the cities of Oneida and Syracuse, and Otisco Lake. DeWitt is getting its water right now from Syracuse. Oneida is supplying Canastota.<\/p>\n
All of those measures are delivering a combined 3.5 million to 4 million gallons a day to a pair of enclosed tanks in Cicero, Brown said. <\/p>\n
That leaves a 1 million to 1.5 million gallon gap \u2014 and there\u2019s where the conservation effort and water users come in. <\/p>\n
All the water has been treated and is safe to drink, McMahon said, although some users may see some discoloration in their tap water.<\/p>\n
Brown said OCWA has contacted the largest users in the area and they are taking steps to ease the burden on the agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been very willing to work with us, going to other facilities outside of the impacted area, whether it\u2019s getting water from the city of Syracuse, changing their operations or other options,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWe are cautiously optimistic that those are going to allow us to continue on the path to keeping everybody in water.\u201d<\/p>\n
The biggest water user in the six towns is pharmaceutical firm Lotte Biologics, near East Syracuse. Lotte uses an average of 210,000 gallons per day, according to OCWA\u2019s 2024 annual report. <\/p>\n
In an emailed statement, Lotte said it has \u201cimplemented actions to reduce water consumption,\u201d but gave no details. <\/p>\n
A typical household uses 370 gallons on average per day, according to OCWA\u2019s data.<\/p>\n
Replacing the section of pipe that ruptured could take two weeks largely because the soil is soaked and unstable from recent rain and snow melt, Brown said. Contractors first have to erect a wall of steel sheeting to make it safe for workers. <\/p>\n
But the big job, he said, is pumping out all of that groundwater and stabilizing the site before connecting the new section of pipe, which will be about 120 feet long.<\/p>\n
\u201cBelieve it or not, the repair itself is relatively straightforward compared to the other things that we have to do to get the site ready,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
New York state is sending several tankers that can carry potable water, according to a spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul. One 6,700-gallon water tanker is being deployed to Onondaga County, and three 500-gallon tankers are being sent to Madison County.<\/p>\n