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Jun 16, 2008 2:47 pm US/Eastern
Water Main Break Causes Issues In Montgomery Co.
LAUREL, Md. (AP) ―
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Some Laurel residents will have to boil their water.
CBS 3
A break in a 36-inch water main cut off water service to a large area of northern Montgomery County on Monday, closing county buildings and prompting mandatory water restrictions as officials urged affected customers to boil water as a precaution.
The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission said repairs would take most of Monday to complete on the break, which happened a day earlier at Muncaster Mill and Meadowside Lane. Consumers with very low water pressure or little water, the utility said, face a heightened risk of contamination.
Jim Nuestadt, a spokesman for the commission, said a large number of people were affected, but he didn't have a specific number.
"People were feeling it all over Montgomery County," he said.
WSSC said the restrictions prohibit outside watering, filling swimming pools or running washing machines and dishwashers across the affected area. The restrictions are designed to maintain some water pressure for firefighters to use in emergencies.
The commission also issued a boil water advisory for all Montgomery customers north of the Capital Beltway.
Those affected should bring water to a rolling boil for one minute before using. Boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, making ice, washing dishes, brushing teeth, and food preparation until further notice, Nuestadt said.
The boil advisory is expected to last for at least three days as water pressure is restored and water quality is tested. The water restrictions were expected to last until Monday evening.
Several county buildings in places such as Wheaton, Gaithersburg and Germantown closed for lack of water and the county's recreation department shut all camps Monday. The county school system said some buildings with little or no water pressure were also closing.
At Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville, patients and staff were given bottled water because of the water advisory.
Nuestadt said a drop in water pressure was first noticed Sunday night, but the break wasn't pinpointed until Monday morning, in a wooded area of a park where water was spilling into a nearby lake.
Because of the delay, storage tanks that keep water pressure up were emptied, causing the wide-ranging drop in service. The utility has closed valves and taken other measures to restore pressure, and Nuestadt said it hoped to have service restored to many users by the end of the day.
Residents who receive their water from the city of Rockville are not affected by the restrictions or boil advisories.
Meanwhile, county health officials are contacting restaurants and food service companies in affected areas to advise them not to serve prepared food if they have no water service. But the county has not issued an order requiring them to shut down, said county spokeswoman Mary Anderson.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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