Hampton Shaler Water customers asked to conserve after main break at plant
Customers of the Hampton Shaler Water Authority could be asked to conserve water for a couple of days, the authority’s executive director said Wednesday.
A break in a 16-inch pumping main leaving the water plant was discovered around 4 a.m. Wednesday, Sam Scarfone said. It’s been isolated, but the plant is not operating at full capacity.
“The plant is operational but not at 100%,” he said. “The break is on a cliff side. It’s very difficult to get in and make the repair. We are contacting contractors now. This could take a couple of days for the repair to be complete and the plant to be 100% operational again.”
The authority is asking its customers to curtail all non-essential water use, including washing cars, doing laundry and watering lawns until further notice.
The plant is operating at about 60% of its capacity, Scarfone said.
While no customers have lost water, “We can’t meet our demand,” Scarfone said. “If everyone uses water like they normally would do on a hot summer day, we’d run out of water.”
Water is getting to customers from storage tanks, which are dropping, Scarfone said.
“At some point they may see lower water pressure,” he said. “We’re not there yet. Hopefully if people continue to conserve water, we’ll be fine. The water conservation order is very important at this point.”
The authority will update customers by phone and will update a notice on its website.
Once regular service is restored, the authority advises residents with discolored water not to wash light colored clothing until water is clear again. The authority recommends customers with health issues use bottled water instead of discolored water.
The authority services 23,600 customers across all or parts of 10 municipalities in Allegheny County north of Pittsburgh. It was created in 2011 from the merger of the Hampton Township Municipal Authority and the Shaler Water Department, and started operations in January 2012.
The authority says it typically pumps, treats and distributes five to six million gallons of water per day.
Brian C. Rittmeyer, a Pittsburgh native and graduate of Penn State University's Schreyer Honors College, has been with the Trib since December 2000. He can be reached at brittmeyer@triblive.com.
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