Elmhurst, Illinois - During the overnight hours of July 16/17, the City water system experienced 12 breaks throughout the water system. The quality of the water has not been affected and a City Wide boil order is not required. If you are in an affected area you will receive a RED notice with more information.
On June 16, 2016, City crews took “offline” the City’s north water tower located at Armitage and Walnut. This tower is the next in the schedule to be painted. Prior to the bidding documents being prepared, the City needed to drain the water tower to complete an internal inspection so any needed work could be included in the bid documents. The purpose of a water tower is to provide storage, but also to allow for pressure fluctuations in the water system. Prior to taking the tower offline, crews installed a pressure relief device to regulate pressures in the water system. At approximately 12:30 am, a water main break occurred on Larch Avenue. This caused the City’s automated pumping system to identify a high water flow which caused other pumps to automatically turn on, which increased the pressure in the water system, leading to 11 additional water main breaks before City staff could respond to manually regulate the system pressure. The majority of the leaks are located in the northern portion of the City.
Three City crews, along with three additional crews from contractors, are working to make the repairs, which the City is estimating to have repairs complete prior to 5:00 pm today. Affected properties will be provided a hand delivered notice explaining the need to turn off their water to make the repair. While at no time the quality of the water was impacted, property owners who have had their water shut off to make the repair will be given notice of a precautionary boil order, per IEPA regulations. Water samples will be taken at each location and sent to a certified lab for analysis. Once lab results are received back from laboratory, a green notice will be handed out to all affected properties that precautionary boil order has been lifted. The earliest we could get results would be late Saturday afternoon or evening.
Additional information will be released later in the day on Friday regarding the progress being made.
Below is a link to a map that indicates the affected area:
Map
****06/17/16 5PM UPDATE****
Three City crews and three contractor crews have worked throughout the day repairing the 12 water main breaks that occurred in the overnight hours in the City. Repairs have been made, or will be completed by the end of today, to all locations, affecting approximately 200 residents and business customers in the vicinity of the water main breaks. Those residents who were impacted by the repair and had their water turned off have been issued a precautionary boil order notice, in accordance with IEPA guidelines. Water samples have been collected at each location and have been sent to a certified lab for analysis. When samples show satisfactory results, City crews will hand deliver notices to those affected on Saturday or Sunday. NO OTHER PROPERTIES in the City are required to boil their water.
Locations of the watermain repairs are as follows:• 900 Larch (12 properties under precautionary boil order)
• 376 South West Ave (31 properties under precautionary boil order)• 617 Crockett (29 properties under precautionary boil order)
• 613 Lorraine (32 properties under precautionary boil order)• 886 Saylor (20 properties under precautionary boil order)
• 241 Boyd @ Huntington (4 properties under precautionary boil order)• Linden and Church (4 properties under precautionary boil order)
• 226 Poplar (unknown properties affected at this time)• 144 Avon (unknown properties affected at this time)
• 619 Crockett (no additional homes impacted)• Armitage (1 property affected)
• North and River Glen (unknown properties affected at this time)
###