POTTSTOWN — Here we go again, another day, another water main break — or two — in the borough.
For many, the time between Thanksgiving and the New Year is one of celebration and renewal. But for Pottstown’s water distribution crew, it is a time of regular, and bone-chilling, water main repairs. For them, “‘Tis the season” has a whole different meaning, acknowledged Public Works Director Doug Yerger.
For the third time in a week, borough crews have been called out to fix a leaking water pipe in the ground, and for the second time, a boil water notice has been issued.
The latest boil water notice was issued Thursday afternoon in the wake of a water main break at Beech and North Keim Streets. Because water service had to be shut off to fix the leak, which was discovered late Wednesday afternoon, a boil water notice has been issued for all customers on North Keim Street between Beech and Jackson streets.
Thursday’s boil water notice — “Bring all water to a boil, let it boil for one minute, and let it cool before using, or use bottled water. Boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing dishes, and food preparation until further notice” — came only one day after a previous boil water notice was lifted.
That precaution, in place for four days, was put in place after a leak at the 6-inch water main at the intersection of King Street and Route 100 was discovered. Because shutting down water service creates the conditions in which bacteria and other biological contaminants can form, the water cannot be declared safe to drink again after a repair until the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has tested it and found it to be safe.
The work can be a whole new level of chilly. “Especially with the wind today, it’s brutal,” Yerger said of Thursday’s 35-degree temperatures.
Sadly for the crew just thawing out from the Keim and Beech break, another leak sprang up in the 100 block of Sheridan Street Thursday morning, a particularly heart-breaking leak seeing as the long dilapidated roadway had just been re-built and re-paved two months ago.
“That one is just plain depressing,” said Yerger. “We had just rebuilt the road in that block. It’s like we can’t win.”
But after more than 50 years with the public works department, Yerger can’t say he is surprised.
All three of the leaks, King Street, Beech Street and Sheridan Street, occurred in places where road construction is going on or was recently going on. In the case of King Street, the break was adjacent to a PECO gas main replacement project. On Beech Street, the borough is undergoing a water line replacement.
And as for Sheridan Street, it was just completely rebuilt last month. “I don’t know whether it’s the rollers going over new pavement or what, but that’s the way it goes a lot of the time,” Yerger said Thursday.
“We try to coordinate these things with PECO and other projects as much as possible,” said Yerger, who remarked on the PECO gas project tearing up King Street and North Hanover street just a few years after they were re-paved. “That’s why when we saw the scale of the project on North Hanover, we jumped on it to look for lead water lines so we wouldn’t have to dig up a newly paved street when PECO is done. And we found about 30 to 40 percent of the houses there still had lead, so that’s a good thing.”
“Ultimately, the work PECO is doing is a good thing for the town, to get old gas lines replaced, but it sure does get frustrating. It seems like it’s always something,” Yerger said.
He also expressed disappointment that the borough’s annual “leak detection” survey this fall found comparatively few leaks. “I think we hadn’t gotten cold enough temperatures. You know there is a shock to the pipe when the water gets colder, and then when the ground freezes, it heaves and that’s usually a stress on the pipe,” Yerger said.
“Then by January, everything kind of settles in to the new temperatures until it starts to thaw in February and then we usually get a lot of leaks,” said Yerger.
“We’ve been spoiled over the past few years and it hasn’t been too bad,” he said. “It looks like we might be in for a rough season.”
