Work continues at the site of a massive water line break that's left tens of thousands of homes and businesses in Onondaga and Madison counties under water conservation orders.
Crews with the Onondaga County Water Authority (OCWA) have a lot of work to do before they can even begin to repair a 150-foot section of water pipe that's used to bring water from a pumping station in Clay to reservoirs that serve six towns in eastern Onondaga and western Madison counties. A hole needs to be dug out to access the 150-foot pipe. Huge steel sheets need to be driven 40 feet into the ground that will keep the hole from caving in on workers making repairs. Water that seeped into the ground will need to be pumped out.
OCWA Executive Director Jeff Brown said Wednesday that it will all take time.
"Given how significant the size of this project is, 150 feet, the significance of the ground water, the significance of the equipment we need that is not readily available in central New York, yes, it's taking some period of time," Brown said.
Brown said the pile driving equipment is on its way to central New York and will arrive on Friday. Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said it is likely that the repairs will take longer than two weeks.
"We're anticipating it will take longer than two weeks, just from a planning standpoint," McMahon said. "Overall, if they hit the two-week number, that's good considering all the complexities and all the other things that are somewhat out of their control. If it goes a little bit later, we're ready for that too."
The good news is that OCWA has been able to re-route some water from other areas to help with the draining reservoirs, and the city of Syracuse is pumping an extra 800,000 gallons of water per day into the system to help. The city of Oneida is doing the same.
That, plus conservation efforts by residents and businesses, means the amount of water going into the reservoirs now equals the amount going out. But McMahon said residents in the Onondaga County towns of Manlius, DeWitt and Pompey, and the Madison County towns of Lenox, Sullivan and Lincoln, need to continue water conservation efforts.
"I think most of it goes to the aspects of, conservation on your showers, your laundry, your dishwashers and whatnot," McMahon said. "Maybe we go to paper and plastic for our holiday parties. But overall, I think people can make impacts in those areas."
McMahon said the county has already procured 30,000 cases of water that will be distributed in the affected areas if the need arises.
"There will be water in the event there is a mass distribution emergency," he said.
Madison County started giving out cases of bottled water to residents in affected areas Wednesday morning. New York State has also sent tanker trucks for people to fill containers if the water levels get too low.
