Work is nearly complete on a major repair to a ruptured water main in the twn of Cicero that forced thousands of water customers in eastern Onondaga and Madison counties to conserve water.
Onondaga County Water Authority officials say the 134-foot replacement pipe should be totally repaired by early Saturday. After that, officials will test the water to make sure it’s safe.
"It will be chlorine levels, disinfection levels, right?," said OCWA Executive Director Jeff Brown. "Is there bacteria? But it's more of what is the level of disinfection in the system? We need to make sure that it's safe for people to drink. And the primary means of doing that, is checking the amount of disinfectant in the water.”
Brown said once that happens, the mandatory water conservation order will be lifted, which is expected to happen on Monday. Even with the mandaroty restrictions lifted, Brown said people should still try to conserve water for a few more days.
"Water conservation remains important until we get the entire system back to where it was previously, which is fully loading our eastern reservoir to provide a buffer for any unknown potentialities," he said.
He expects the 50-million gallon reservoir to be filled by the middle of next week, and at that time the voluntary water conservation effort can end. Between 50 and 60 workers have been on the job to fix the massive rupture break that happened on December 20. Brown said winter weather has been the biggest challenge during repairs.
"The very wet weather with rain turning to snow, thawing out a little bit," he said. "That has been the most challenging part of this repair. But I would say that our crews have gone through it very, very professionally. And it hasn't slowed them down significantly."
The cost to repair the break will be in the millions, though Brown didn't have an estimate. It will be paid for from OCWA’s reserve fund, whoch totals around $5 million.
