Ruptured Pipe Cuts Safe Water in Boston

For nearly a third of the residents of Boston and some of its suburbs, it was a weekend without clean tap water after a water main ruptured Saturday in the suburb of Weston and rendered water undrinkable.

Gov. Deval Patrick declared a state of emergency on Saturday, and emergency officials drove through neighborhoods using bullhorns to warn residents that water was not safe. Residents in affected areas also received reverse 911 calls telling them to boil their water before drinking it.

The alert set off a frantic rush for the last available bottled water in area stores, a supply that dwindled in mere hours.

The problem began Saturday about 10 a.m., when the pipe, which was 10 feet in diameter, broke in Weston, about 15 miles west of Boston, sending about 8 million gallons of water an hour gushing into the Charles River at the high point of the spill. The rupture affected water service to nearly two million people in 30 cities and towns.

As news of the break surfaced, people flocked to stores to buy bottled water. At the Trader Joe’s in Brookline, workers said that all the water had been quickly purchased from store shelves. In Lexington, a Stop & Shop reported that customers had emptied a 40-foot stretch of shelves of bottled water. To ease the run on the dwindling supplies, the state asked bottled-water companies to make more water available in Massachusetts. The National Guard also distributed emergency drinking water.

On Sunday, Mayor Thomas Menino said that city schools and restaurants would be open Monday, despite the water problems. Eighty percent of the city’s schools already use bottled water for drinking, and the mayor’s office said bottled water would be available at schools that do not use bottled water.

Workers managed to stop the spill on Sunday and to begin repairs on the pipe — which was buried 20 feet underground. Officials with the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority said that the water pressure was steady Sunday night. After the pipe is repaired, the next step will be to test for other leaks. Officials advised residents to continue to boil water for at least a minute until further notice.

from the NY Times