A fire hydrant drains Friday morning at the corner of Ash Street and Thayer Heights Road. PHOTO/JERRY SPAR
Members of Hopkinton’s emergency management group met Friday morning to discuss the town’s water discoloration issue, Water-Sewer Department Manager Eric Carty announced.
“The department will continue to flush hydrants for the foreseeable future to help with the situation,” Carty stated. “There will still be periodic instances as the pumps turn off and on, reversing flows. The town has taken other mitigating steps with pump stations to help minimize the issues.
“Barring any main breaks, fires or further power outages, it should not reach the severity it did this week. The town met with its engineers today to discuss developing a plan to permanently rectify the situation. Once that plan is developed, we will notify the public of the actions being taken.”
Earlier in the morning, Carty noted that as of 4 a.m., most of the hydrants were running clear.
“There are still some areas of discoloration, and additional hydrants are being flushed,” he shared. “The department is trying to make additional adjustments to minimize the issue. Hydrants will remain running until the water clears.”
Ask the people in charge whether recent water main breaks involved asbestos cement or transite pipes? Old asbestos cement (AC) pipes can leach fibres into the water when they are severely deteriorated or when they break. The EPA regulates asbestos in water. Was the water tested for asbestos? Do a search on asbestos cement water pipes. You will find there are hundreds of thousands of miles still in use in North America. They have reached the end of their life, and are breaking in record numbers. The American Cancer Society highlights swallowing asbestos and water that flows through asbestos cement pipes on its website.