Northeast Washington to be without water Saturday

The northeast part of Washington will be without water Saturday morning and probably through the afternoon. The city is shutting off water to that area in order to repair valves that broke over Easter weekend in April.

The areas affected are from North Seventh Avenue to 12

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Avenue between Sixth and Ninth streets. The water to those residences will be shut off at 7 a.m. Saturday morning. The rest of town should be unaffected. Maintenance and Construction Supervisor J.J. Bell said he hopes to be done with the project by early afternoon, but he can?t make any guarantees.

?The water could be back by noon, but our past experiences have taught us that it might not be until midnight,? said Bell.

To prepare for the temporary outage, Bell recommends that the affected residents fill up a bucket of water before the shut-off so they have water to use during the day.

When the water comes back on, there is a chance it may be discolored. This is likely rust that breaks lose when the valve is opened. Bell said if the water is discolored, residents should let the faucet run until the water is transparent, as normal.

Bell said the city sometimes has to shut off water a few times a year, but at other times it has gone two or three years without a shut-off.

Saturday?s shut-off is a result of an effort to repair a broken valve which broke over Easter weekend in April. That valve break was one of three valve breaks that weekend, which precipitated a water emergency for the entire city. The water towers were at one time completely empty. The city issued a boil order, which lasted for a few days. Bell said the city wants to avoid a recurrence of that emergency, which is why it is replacing the old valve with a new one.