What to do during a boil water advisory
- Before drinking tap water, leave it boiling for one minute. Pour the water into a clean container with a cover for storage.
- Boil water before use for drinking, brushing teeth or washing dishes.
- It's safe to take showers and do laundry as usual, but be careful not to swallow water during bathing.
- Wash all fruits and vegetables with boiled water that has cooled or with bottled water.
- As an alternative to boiled water, you can also use bottled water.
Source: DeKalb County
As a boil water advisory stretched into the third day Monday, some DeKalb residents questioned why it took so long for the county to resolve the crisis.
Government officials declared water in DeKalb safe to drink straight from the tap after receiving lab results Monday evening.
Problems started Thursday when a brush hog mower ran into a fire hydrant near Interstate 285 south of Spaghetti Junction. The hydrant was located above a 48-inch water transmission line that began spewing thousands of gallons, leading to reduced water pressure that caused businesses throughout DeKalb to close.
All of the county’s 722,000 residents were advised to boil water before drinking it because of the potential health hazard that may occur when pressure drops.
Some restaurants and businesses remained closed Monday as they awaited word. Over the weekend, residents rushed to grocery stores to buy bottled water and the operators of a 1,000-foot water slide were forced to shut down the sold-out event.
Many are asking how a problem in the northeast corner of DeKalb could damage an entire county water system.
“It’s just frustrating,” said Pauline Dailey, a member of a citizen advisory group on water and sewer issues. “This affects every child, parent and person in the county. Why did it affect the entire county and not an isolated area that they could have fixed quickly? There are hard questions out there.”
The county could have fixed the issue within a couple of hours after the hydrant shattered Thursday if it had the right equipment and knowledge, said Alessandro Salvo, the CEO of GS Construction, the company the county called to help with repairs Friday. Instead, he said the county tried to get the water system running early Saturday morning without shutting off the valve on the water transmission line.
“We knew it was going to blow the minute they put pressure on it,” Salvo said. “It was a situation where they had hospitals out, fire services out, people were complaining and they didn’t want to leave the water off.”
His account contradicts the official account of what happened. County spokesman Burke Brennan said a patch gave way as water pressure was restored. But Salvo said there was no patch, and the county restored pressure after tightening flange bolts that didn’t hold up.
Brennan said the county is working to upgrade its water and sewer system through an ongoing $1.35 billion infrastructure project.
“This is an indication of an aging system, and it’s a system we’re addressing,” he said. “We are addressing these areas of neglect.”
Rusty McKellar, who is also a member of the DeKalb Capital Improvement Project Advisory Group, said the county needs leadership in its Department of Watershed Management. The department has been led by Interim Director Charles Lambert since former Director James Chansler retired earlier this year.
“One wonders if the absence at the top contributed to the slow response,” McKellar said. “I’d been drinking water all day Saturday and didn’t find out (about the boil advisory) until 6 at night.” He and others said the county needs to improve its communication.
At times, some homeowners and hotel guests couldn’t get water during the weekend. The same went for some restaurants that shut down, leaving the usually bustling Decatur square empty late Saturday. The Decatur and Wade Walker branches of the YMCA also were closed Monday because of low water pressure, and they planned to reopen Tuesday.
At the Square Pub in downtown Decatur, the restaurant went through 15 cases of bottled water over the weekend and used paper plates to ensure sanitary conditions. The business was closed Monday.
“It’s one of those things where it’s out of our control and we’re doing the best we can,” said owner Bob Rhein.
Fifty water sites were tested for contamination Sunday. The state recommends water testing and water boiling advisories when water systems lose pressure, as they did during the repairs.
There have been other occasions when Georgia residents had to boil water for three or more days, said Kevin Chambers, a spokesman for the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. In one case, a 36-inch water main break near Decatur in December 2006 triggered a three-day water boiling advisory, and many other advisories have lasted shorter amounts of time.
“The issue here is that it took DeKalb some time to repair this major water line,” Chambers said. “Samples were taken after repairs were complete, but the lab test takes 24 hours so there is always a delay in rescinding the notice.”
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