UPDATE: 10 p.m.: The state says workers have stopped the leak in Weston but that it could be "days at a minimum, we're hoping not weeks" before the boil-water order is lifted. ... If you have water-related questions, you can call 211. ... The state has posted an FAQ, including answers to questions about such things as giving babies baths and whether dishwashers and automatic coffee machines are safe. ... Map of Boston neighborhoods (yes, Allston and Brighton are part of Boston).
Boil that water until further notice, the MWRA warns:
A BOIL WATER ORDER IS BEING ISSUED FOR DRINKING WATER FOR ALL MWRA COMMUNITIES EAST OF WESTON UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. ... MWRA is activating its emergency water supplies such as the Sudbury Aqueduct, Chestnut Hill Reservoir and Spot Pond Reservoir. THIS WATER WILL NOT BE SUITABLE FOR DRINKING, but can be used for bathing, flushing and fire protection.
According to the state Department of Environmental Water, this means bringing "the water to a rolling boil for at least 1 minute." If you go out to eat, do NOT drink fountain soda - unless you're going into Cambridge, which has its own water supply separate from the MWRA.
The MWRA adds:
The leak is located at the location where the MetroWest Water Supply Tunnel meets the City Tunnel on Recreation Road. This 120-inch diameter pipe transports water to our communities east of Weston – as far north as Wilmington and south to Stoughton. Water is leaking into the Charles River at rate of over 8 million gallons an hour. MWRA crews are on site; engineers are assessing the situation to determine next steps.
The Boston Police Department held over officers from the day shift so they can begin driving around the city notifying residents of the emergency order over loudspeakers.
List of affected communities:
Arlington, Bedford, Belmont, Boston, Brookline, Canton, Chelsea, Dedham, Everett, Lexington, Lynnfield Water District, Malden, Marblehead, Marlborough, Medford, Melrose, Milton, Nahant, Newton, Norwood, Peabody, Quincy, Reading, Revere, Saugus, Somerville, Stoneham, Stoughton, Swampscott, Wakefield, Waltham, Watertown, Weston, Westwood, Wilmington, Winchester, Winthrop, Woburn.
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Comments
From the globe: Because of
By cowsandmilk
Sat, 05/01/2010 - 8:56pm
From the globe:
So that means they likely won't even start fixing it until sometime tomorrow, I think. This feeling is also somewhat confirmed by the fact that Governor Patrick is asking bottled water companies to make extra water available to the state. If this was going to be fixed when we woke up tomorrow, that wouldn't be necessary.
My guess.
By Pete Nice
Sat, 05/01/2010 - 9:08pm
If they know what the problem is, they know how to fix it. They usually have outside contractors start emergency work as soon as possible, and my guess would be right now. Id say everything will be fine by at the earliest tomorow night, and the latest 72 hours. My guess is Monday morning the pipe will be repaired.
Not what the exec director says
By Kaz
Sat, 05/01/2010 - 11:47pm
Check out the NECN video Adam just linked to. The director of the MWRA is talking days to possibly weeks. If the crack is bad enough that they can't patch it, then from what I've read they'll have to create a custom new pipe to replace the segment. 10-foot diameter pipes aren't the kind of thing you make in an hour...
MRWA blames "Murphy's law"
By fenwayguy
Sat, 05/01/2010 - 8:34pm
MWRA Executive Director Fred Laskey, in an effort to save his job, repeatedly blamed "Murphy's law" for today's failure -- obviously out of his control.
I wonder, is Murphy's salary commensurate with his responsibility for the integrity and safety of the aqueducts? Can we save a couple of hundred thousand bucks by canning his incompetent ass?
Well, only if ...
By SwirlyGrrl
Sat, 05/01/2010 - 9:04pm
his salary reduction would be enough to make up for the amount that it costs to maintain infrastructure. If we underfund everything - and Massachusetts seems to underfund ALL infrastructure maintenance and repair - we get what we pay for. Taxachusetts is a myth - we simply underfund this stuff and now we got to boil it before we drink it!
You mean like they
By NotWhitey
Sat, 05/01/2010 - 9:11pm
You mean like they underfunded the Big Dig?
This aqueduct is brand new - how much maintenance do you think it needs? And by the way - when you file your state taxes, you do check the box to pay the higher rate - right?
I said that MAINTENENCE is underfunded
By SwirlyGrrl
Sat, 05/01/2010 - 9:14pm
And that is due to way too much money paying people who don't do anything and bloated pension funds.
I about choked when I heard that certain agencies don't like to do maintenance because it comes out of their program budgets ... I mean WTF are they supposed to be doing with that money?
Massachusetts also funds things year by year ... a recipe for disaster. Google "hood canal bridge" to find out why Washington joined the 20th century in that regard.
I think what notwhitey is saying....
By Pete Nice
Sat, 05/01/2010 - 9:19pm
Is that a waterpipe is not like an MBTA bus engine. Pipes are built to last 150 years and then you just replace them. They don't require maintenence like a bus engine would.
come on
By heidi
Sun, 05/02/2010 - 1:10pm
why, when something like this happens, do people immediately start trumpeting "off their heads"? there are people who get into government work because they want to serve their fellow citizens (and yes - gasp - government employees are not all "hacks") and they are right now working 24/7 for you and everyone around you.
what a world we would live in if every time something bad happened, anybody that had *anything* to do with it gets canned. one would presume that these instantaneous judges have had the good fortune to work at places which never ever make even the smallest mistakes or are the victim of another's negligence.
let the man do his job before you begin the executions. please.
what a world we would live in
By NotWhitey
Sun, 05/02/2010 - 2:10pm
You mean like the Dreaded Private Sector?
ooh yeah all those people
By heidi
Sun, 05/02/2010 - 2:20pm
ooh yeah all those people still working at Goldman Sachs, etc etc. this is just one break which will be fixed soon. yeah, the private sector can be just brutal for performance pay.
these fat cats
By heidi
Sun, 05/02/2010 - 1:23pm
"a
Silver Lining
By SwirlyGrrl
Sat, 05/01/2010 - 9:11pm
One neighbor just got home. Five neighbors instantly appeared to inform them of the disaster.
My sons went door to door when we first heard, until the cops showed up and took over, making sure our neighbors were safe.
People talking to each other, people looking out for each other. That part is nice.
Oh come on, it's just
By J
Sun, 05/02/2010 - 3:18am
Oh come on, it's just untreated water, not death itself coming up your pipes.
I'm sure everyone here, at one point or another, has drank worse.
,
By SwirlyGrrl
Sat, 05/01/2010 - 9:12pm
,
The view from Auburndale
By adamg
Sat, 05/01/2010 - 9:39pm
Nathan Phillips photographs the water that normally flows under Auburndale.
Hmmm
By OldProfessorBear
Sat, 05/01/2010 - 9:50pm
Hmmm ...
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/itw-home-water-...
The rocket scientists who
By datadyne007
Sat, 05/01/2010 - 11:10pm
The rocket scientists who work at McDonald's Faneuil Hall made signs that said they couldn't serve soda fountain beverages due to "oil leak on the water" ... and that they "opologize" (sic) for this. I tried to tell them that this has nothing to do with the oil in the Gulf and that it was a water main break, but they wouldn't hear it.
Made me lol.
Explanation
By anon
Mon, 05/03/2010 - 1:13pm
Most of the people who work at McDonald's don't really speak English.
These rocket scientists also didn't realize that the Gulf is salt water. You can't drink that. You could desalinate it, but it takes way too much energy to be cost effective.
100% trivial side note: Mother Brook
By adamg
Sat, 05/01/2010 - 11:40pm
In case you were wondering - like we were - about the effect on the Mother Brook of all that water gushing into the Charles, the answer is: Not much. You do see a slight rise in the amount of water flowing into the Mother Brook, but absolutely nowhere near as much as what happened last weekend when they lowered the level of the Charles by three feet in Waltham to inspect the flashboards at the Moody Street dam.
Ummm -
By ssrelso
Sat, 05/01/2010 - 11:59pm
It would be considerably odd if the leak increased the volume into Mother Brook, since the burst site is several miles downstream from it.
Why is Winchester under a boil order?
By Ron Newman
Sun, 05/02/2010 - 12:27am
They have their own water system -- three reservoirs in the western part of the Middlesex Fells. Shouldn't they be safe from this problem?
Only a partial supply
By Quantum Mechanic
Sun, 05/02/2010 - 7:53am
According to http://www.mwra.com/02org/html/whatis.htm the MWRA is a partial/emergency water source for Winchester.
Winchester water divided into zones
By Ron Newman
Sun, 05/02/2010 - 9:16am
I couldn't find this last night, but http://www.winchester.us/ now says this:
Due to a major water main break in the MWRA water system, the MWRA has issued a BOIL WATER ORDER for the part of the Town of Winchester supplied by the MWRA. This will affect all residents west of Cambridge Street, including Cambridge Street. Other areas of Town impacted include Pond Street, Chesterford Road, Chesterford Terrace, Ardley Road, Ardley Place, Parker Road and Norfolk Road. Also, Bellevue Avenue, Keenan Drive, Eugene Drive, and Forest Street, from Bellevue Avenue to the Stoneham Line.
All other residents and businesses have water fed from the Town’s water treatment system, which is safe to consume.
Cambridge...
By anon
Sun, 05/02/2010 - 6:58am
I guess i'll find a person over in Cambridge who will let me fill my jugs with their tap water until this is over with.. boiling the water is a pain in the butt.
-somerville resident
I've Missed Something
By SP
Sun, 05/02/2010 - 8:42am
I've missed something - why, if the pipe is gushing water *out* is there bad water in the pipe? How does bad water get into the pipe if the force of the water is blasting outwardly? Where/how is the untreated water entering the pipe?
Somebody, please 'splain this to me.
And yes, I always figured Cambridge was on a different system, its water is terrible to drink. Brookline/Quabbin water, I could guzzle from the tap all day.
OK - Got It!
By SP
Sun, 05/02/2010 - 8:44am
Okay, now I understand. While the pipe is being repaired we are being served water from alternate, untreated reservoirs.
boil water warning
By anon
Sun, 05/02/2010 - 1:22pm
I've sat at lake beaches many times and watched little children take the water into their mouths and either swallow it or spout it out like a fountain as their parents sat close by watching. The parents didn't stop them or even seem to be concerned, funny thing is I didn't see any of them boiling the water before hand.
We live in a different time now were you have to wonder if anything is either safe or unsafe even when they tell you it is. I don't drink unfiltered tap water even when they say it is safe.
So I go over to Danehy Park in Cambridge..
By Brian Riccio
Sun, 05/02/2010 - 1:58pm
and there's a nice water fountain there for the dogs in the nice dog section they built there recently and I was filling a gallon jug to take home with me when some 60's holdover with the balding head and the ridiculous ponytail says "HEY! YOU CAN"T DO THAT! ARE YOU A CAMBRIDGE RESIDENT?". I replied no and he said he was going to call the cops. Only when I explained it was for my dog and this was how much he'd drink there anyways and not for me did he relent.
And they say the next world war will be fought over oil? I don't think so.
Contaminate This!
By peabody resident
Sun, 05/02/2010 - 2:23pm
hey i live in peabody; we been told not to drink our tap water for years; i still drink it and i am fine.
ah, neighborliness
By Glenn
Sun, 05/02/2010 - 2:26pm
I work in Cambridge. I can easily visualize this encounter and it is painful to do so. What a tool, that guy. :(
The proper response should
By anon²
Sun, 05/02/2010 - 3:00pm
The proper response should have been "fuck off".
Fighting over water rights
By LA
Mon, 05/03/2010 - 6:24am
Since the beginning of time there have been fights over food and water at times when it became scarce. The problem is as Americans in the US today we think it can't happen here, but oh it can. I hope this is not the start of THE WAR BETWEEN THE CITIES because THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES was bad enough with the many lives that were lost. Although I find it comforting to think that the next war we fight over oil or what ever, that maybe we can stop it before it starts if we tell them it is for our dogs instead of for us.
I found our water!
By Aquatective
Sun, 05/02/2010 - 8:12pm
It's right here:
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?cb_00060=on&cb_0...
This chart of the flow in the Charles River in Waltham shows the flow increasing around 11am. Moody Street gauging station is 3-4 miles downstream of the leak.
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