Washington is under boil order

The entire city of Washington is in a water emergency. Residents should conserve water and boil the water they will consume. The boil order will probably be in effect for at least a few days. City staff will take water samples today and send them to the State Hygienic Lab at the University of Iowa. The lab will test the samples for e-coli bacteria and other pathogens. If the test finds no pathogens, the boil order will be lifted.

Washington Schools Superintendent Mike Jorgensen announced that classes will resume Tuesday despite the boil order. He made the announcement after meeting with city staff Monday morning. The schools encourage students to bring bottled water for their own use because the water fountains will be shut off. Faucets and other toilet facilities will function as normal. There were no classes Monday because of the Easter holiday.

The water emergency will affect the school?s food service. The cooks will make sandwiches for Tuesday?s lunch because sandwiches do not require water for their preparation. Outside water will be brought in to wash the dishes.

Jorgensen said the boil order should not be a problem for athletic events in the town.

The city announced the water emergency over the town?s public address speakers Sunday evening shortly before 5 p.m. It instructed residents to conserve water and boil it.

The problem began Saturday night when a 12-inch main broke in the city. A 12-inch main is the largest the city has. Another 12-inch main broke on North 12th Avenue and then a third 12-inch main, which feeds the water plant from two of the wells, also broke. By Sunday afternoon, the leaks had completely drained the water towers.

The city has three wells, numbered 5, 6 and 7. The city relies on two wells, usually wells No. 5 and No. 7, and keeps No. 6 as a backup. One of the main breaks left the city with access to only one of those wells, No. 5.

On Sunday afternoon, city staff attempted to address the problem by connecting well No. 7 on South Avenue D directly into a water main through a fire hydrant. That effort failed and, in the process, caused a small break in a water line, which resulted in water escaping onto Third Street at the intersection with North D. That leak was fixed later Sunday night.

All of the main breaks that the city knows of have been fixed. City Administrator Dave Plyman said that the water situation looks much better today than it did Sunday afternoon.

?We?ve been adding water to the towers through the night,? said Plyman. ?Our city staff worked late into the night. We have some workers who have been doing it almost non-stop.?

The water towers had about 7 feet of water in them as of Monday morning. He said that the city opened some valves and closed others to reroute the water away from the breaks. The city discovered small leaks in its valves, but is not losing nearly as much water as it was Sunday.

Plyman said everyone in town needs to conserve water until the emergency has passed. Likewise, everyone should boil water while the boil order is in effect.

?We?re going to take multiple water samples,? said Plyman. ?We probably won?t give the ?all clear? for a couple of days. Until we know the it?s clean, we?re going to be under a boil order.?

The Washington City Council plans to build a new water tower and has talked about drilling a new well. Plyman said neither the water towers nor the wells caused Sunday?s headache.

?The problem we experienced was due to multiple main breaks,? he said. ?That will always present a problem. Breaks were on our largest diameter mains, too. They don?t get any bigger than 12 inches. There may even be other breaks we haven?t found yet.?

Plyman mentioned that a contributing factor to the problem was that the demand on Easter Sunday was higher than the average Sunday.

The Washington Fire Department is affected by the water emergency. It has a pumper with 1,000 gallons of water, but it may have to rely on water in surrounding towns if there is a fire in Washington. The fire department can also pump water from a pond.