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Updated 17 hours ago
The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority narrowly averted a disaster after a large water main burst Wednesday and began draining a reservoir that supplies water to the North Side, city officials said Friday.
Water feeding the Lanpher Reservoir, a 133 million-gallon pool in Shaler, was gushing from the rupture at a rate of 10,000 gallons per minute. The Lanpher water level was dropping by 1 inch every 90 minutes, according to PWSA.
It left PWSA about 24 hours to make repairs before roughly 45,000 North Side residents lost water pressure, Mayor Bill Peduto said.
“It was serious because you're losing 10,000 gallons per minute,” Peduto said. “There were two things that had to happen: No. 1 we had to locate the leak, and No. 2 we had to create additional pumping in order to be able to get the reservoir back on track.”
The water authority repaired a pump and valve assembly at the Aspinwall waterworks in the nick of time, Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said.
He said the city, as a precaution, brought in 45,000 gallons of drinking water in tanks to supply residents and an additional 17,000 gallons of water in case of fire. The water is being stored near the Waterworks Mall near Aspinwall in case it's needed.
Pittsburgh also notified Pittsburgh Public Schools and Allegheny General Hospital on the North Side about the potential of losing water service.
“Fortunately, everything worked out,” Hissrich said. “They were able to start that pump and maintain the level in the reservoirs.”
But PWSA is faced with repairing a major leak in a 60-inch pipe that runs four miles from Aspinwall to Lanpher Reservoir.
PWSA officials suspect the leak is somewhere along Parker Street in Etna near its intersection with Washington Street, but the agency has yet to determine the exact location.
PWSA spokesman Will Pickering said most of the water is draining into a large sewer line underneath Parker Street into Pine Creek and the Allegheny River.
Parker remains closed to through traffic indefinitely, according to Etna police.
A crew from Butler-based Frank J. Zottola Construction searching for the leak Friday dug a large pit in the street and water appeared to be bubbling up from the bottom and draining. Workers also uncovered the nearby concrete sewer pipe. The sound of rushing water was audible from a hole in the top of the pipe.
T.J. Johnson, Zottola's project manager, said he called off work until Monday over concerns that uncovering the leak would cause additional damage.
“We can't expose any more of the pipe because the line is still live,” he said. “They're losing 10,000 gallons a minute. If you expose that there would be no way to control that water.”
PWSA on Monday plans to shut off water flowing through the line so crews can work to repair it. The authority, which can supply Lanpher and the North Side from a reservoir in Highland Park, said the shutoff is not expected to cause disruption of water service.
The authority will have to make special arrangements to pump water to residents in the vicinity of the Waterworks Mall, Pickering said.
The work could take months, Peduto said.
The same line ruptured in 2014, and it took three months to repair, Pickering said, adding that PWSA wouldn't be able to estimate a timeframe for this repair until it locates the leak.
“Being able to replace it isn't something you can just do over the course of a couple weeks,” the mayor said. “It's going to take probably a couple months.”
Bob Bauder is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-765-2312 or bbauder@tribweb.com.
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