Water quality clears, but boil-water advisory remains

The amount of silt in the drinking water drops, but the advisory will probably remain in effect through the weekend.

01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, October 19, 2005

By JOHN CASTELLUCCI
Journal Staff Writer

PAWTUCKET -- A day after cloudy water caused the state Health Department to issue a boil-water advisory for Pawtucket, Central Falls and Cumberland, the quality of the water coming out of the city's water treatment plant improved sharply.

But the water still wasn't fit to drink.

As a result, the boil-water advisory remained in effect for all three communities.

Residents were advised to boil their water for at least a minute before drinking it, even if all they planned to do with the water was make ice cubes or brush their teeth.

John J. Barry III, who, along with other City Council members, has voted for millions of dollars in improvements to the water system, said he was razzed yesterday morning by constituents who remembered the city's last water emergency, caused when a multimillion-dollar effort to replace aging water mains introduced coliform bacteria into the water supply in 1992.

"'Here we go again. We're spending all this money and we still can't have clean water,"' Barry said, quoting the constituents.

Barry said he understands their irritation: Water rates have increased sharply as a result of plans by the Pawtucket Water Supply Board to build a new, state-of-the art water treatment plant. The plant, under construction, is expected to be in operation next year.

Water Supply Board officials said the current water emergency arose when more than 6 inches of rain fell on the state over the weekend, sweeping soil and silt into the reservoir system and downstream to Happy Hollow Pond in Cumberland, where the 66-year-old treatment plant draws water.

There was so much sediment in the water, the officials said, that the antiquated plant was overwhelmed.

Barry said he was skeptical. If, as Pawtucket Water Supply Board officials asserted, the problems were caused by the weather, "Why is it only our system?" he wondered. Why weren't other water systems -- such as the Providence Water Supply Board, which draws its water from the Scituate Reservoir -- affected, too?

Allen Champagne, the official who keeps an eye on water quality for Pawtucket, said the problems arose in Pawtucket, and not elsewhere, because of the distance of the city's reservoirs from the water treatment plant.

Providence's water treatment plant is in Scituate and draws water by pipe from the Scituate Reservoir, Champagne said. Pawtucket's water treatment plant is seven miles downstream from the system's two main reservoirs, Diamond Hill and Arnold Mills, in Cumberland, he said.

When the ground is saturated with water, as it was during Friday and Saturday's rainstorm, there is ample opportunity for sediment to be swept into Abbott Run, the stream that links the system's necklace of reservoirs, contaminating the raw water supply, Champagne said. By Sunday, when all that muddy water reached the treatment plant, he said, the plant was unable to handle the load.

Monday's boil-water advisory was issued by the Health Department after the turbidity, or amount of silt in the city's drinking water, rose to a level four times higher than is considered safe, Champagne indicated.

Yesterday afternoon, the turbidity level dropped to about a third of what it was when the plant operators decided to notify the Health Department, Champagne said.

But yesterday's turbidity level was still slightly above the threshold set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency for safe drinking water. Water Supply Board officials said the city's supply of raw drinking water was still compromised by the weekend's heavy rainfall, making it necessary to keep the boil-water advisory in effect.

Pamela M. Marchand, chief engineer and general manager of the Pawtucket water system, said the advisory will probably remain in effect through the weekend.

Even if the turbidity of the water coming out of the treatment plant drops below the danger level, Marchand said it will still be necessary to flush the system's 240-mile network of pipes and empty its water storage tanks of cloudy water, a process that is expected to take several days.

Meanwhile, Marchand said, people should continue to boil their drinking water, even though stepped-up tests of water in the distribution system haven't detected the presence of harmful bacteria.

Although turbid water isn't unsafe in itself, the turbidity can interfere with the disinfection process and provide a medium for the growth of bacteria, she said.

Under the circumstances, Marchand said, the state Health Department and Pawtucket Water Supply Board were taking no chances.

"At this point, we don't have any positive bacteria samples or anything like that. There's nothing to indicate that there is a problem with the water. It's just a matter of prevention," she said.

Police: Water is available

CUMBERLAND -- Residents burdened by the state Health Department's boil-water advisory have something to fall back on: the Police Department.

Police Chief Anthony Silva said yesterday that the police have cases of drinking water available to residents who are housebound and unable to boil water or go to the store to purchase bottled water themselves.

Eligible residents can request a delivery by calling the Police Department at (401) 333-2500.