The Onondaga County Water Authority (OCWA) expects repairs to be finished on a massive water main break in the Town of Cicero by the end of next week. Crews are still working to fix a massive transmission line break that’s forced thousands of residents and businesses in Onondaga and Madison counties to use water sparingly.
The water conservation efforts for the six towns have worked to an extent, according to OCWA Executive Director Jeff Brown. He said Thursday that more water is going into the eastern reservoir than is going out. However, he noted residents and businesses should still watch their water usage.
"Having that buffer of water in that reservoir is absolutely critical if there is another system upset," Brown said. "So we have to continue to ask people to conserve. The conservation order will remain in effect because we need that backup supply, that storage, to protect all of us, quite frankly."
Residents in the Onondaga County towns of Manlius, DeWitt, and Pompey, and the Madison County towns of Sullivan, Lenox, and Lincoln, have been under a conservation order since the 42-inch water pipe broke Dec. 20. Brown said crews are stabilizing the area around the broken pipe with steel and are still removing groundwater from the worksite.
"The challenges with the repair are the amount of water in that area," Brown said. "We are dewatering the site, but it is a challenge. As additional precipitation happens, we have to factor that in.”
Brown said the goal is still to have the repair completed by Jan. 16. Then, it will be a few days after that before everything is back to normal.
"The issue of disinfection and making sure that water is safe once it starts flowing through that pipe," he said. "We are in communication, we have a plan that we have presented to the health department. We are waiting for feedback on that and it could be a day or two. It's really up to the Department of Health."
Brown said it’s still unclear exactly what caused the break, although he said changes in the ecology of the area, such as shifting soil and a high groundwater table, were factors.
