About four hours after Springfield lifted its water boil order for residents due to a significant main break on Tuesday, Mayor Domenic Sarno took a sip from a large cup of water to prove the city’s water is once again safe for consumption.
“All of us working together were able to avert this water crisis,” Sarno said at a press conference at City Hall on Thursday morning.
Sarno was joined by Theo Theocles, director of legal affairs for the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission, Superintendent of Schools Daniel Warwick and Health and Human Services Commissioner Helen Caulton-Harris.
Sarno declared a state of emergency Wednesday after a high-pressure, 3-foot water main exploded in a wooded area off St. James Avenue due to torrential rainfall.
Courtesy of the Springfield Fire Department.
“This is to avail ourselves of infrastructure repair money,” he said previously. “It’s a big job, it’s going to cost millions of dollars. The area in question is very unstable.”
Nearly 5-10 million gallons of treated water flowed out of the system as a result of the break.
City officials were able to lift the boil order after the water tested negative for bacteria twice before 5 a.m. on Thursday.
“This is our Springfield water right here,” Sarno said as he took a swig. “And it’s fantastic.”
Caulton-Harris said that residents who consumed water between 3 p.m. on Tuesday to 5 a.m. on Thursday should look out for symptoms of nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and other effects that bacteria might have on a person’s gastrointestinal tract. If those arise, she asked residents to visit their primary care physician.
Sarno said there have been no reported instances of residents falling ill from the contaminated waters.
Schools reopened on Thursday after the district was forced to close on Wednesday due to the unsafe water.
Manny Laboy, of Springfield Fire Department, helps Anthony Pouliot, left, and Bob Pasini, right, offloading cases of water bottles at Raymond A. Jordan Senior Center in Springfield Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 13, 2023. Mayor Domenic J. Sarno declared a state of emergency in Springfield shortly after a break was spotted in a 36-inch high-pressure main in a wooded area off St. James Avenue. (Hoang ‘Leon’ Nguyen / The Republican)
Sarno and Caulton-Harris said the city distributed more than 2,000 cases of bottled water to Springfield residents with the help of the fire department and police at seven sites.
“I’m always very proud to say that we’ve been battle-tested and true to a number of natural and man-made disasters,” Sarno said. “You don’t want to go through these things, but we know what to do when these things arise and we’re able to rectify the situation very quickly.”
Fire hydrants will be flushed and residents may experience some low water pressure on Thursday, according to Sarno.
Theo Theocles, director of legal affairs for the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission, at a press conference on Thursday, Sept. 14.
Some residents may experience some discolored water, Theocles said. He recommended residents run a cold tap for 10 to 15 minutes, wait half an hour, and then repeat as necessary.
Finding the source of the main break took nearly two hours since it was in a remote location, Theocles said.
The search effort to find the main break involved the use of drones over the Connecticut River and teams by the Water and Sewer Commission taking to land, sea and air, Theocles said.
Eventually, the break was found behind Big Y on St. James Avenue when a citizen noticed the main break in a wooded area behind the supermarket and alerted a police officer on detail duty at a nearby construction site.
The main break happened nearly 10 feet underground and a large portion of land was cleared away by the high-pressure explosion.
Director of the Department of Public Works Christopher Cignoli previously said that workers would need to go down nearly 20 feet in order to do the repairs.
Initial work to stabilize the water main break will take between two to five days, but officials did not say how long a longer-term fix will take.
Theocles said the burst 3-foot pipe is a “critical piece of infrastructure” and that getting it back online will be essential.
The entire water and sewer system is being evaluated for critical repairs as needed, Theocles said, and due to the aging infrastructure, “unparalleled” amounts of investment over the next few years are being made in order to avoid a similar disaster.
