Tuna Valley residents don’t have to think back very far to recall what it is like to be without proper water service for a week.
It was Feb. 23, 2015, when changing weather caused a water line break — one of many that aging water systems experience as winter fades into spring. It was the location of this break within the water system that made the outcome different.
The “catastrophic break occurred on the 24-inch diameter water transmission main at the University of Pittsburgh-Bradford campus,” said Steve Disney, executive director of the Bradford City Water Authority. “Before the main could be shut down, most of the water stored in the system’s reservoirs was lost.”
The main ruptured on Feb. 23, 2015, causing more than 5 million gallons of water from two large storage tanks to be lost and leaving a majority of the water authority’s 18,000 customers without water.
By Feb. 25, 2015, the water main was repaired, but it was still an uphill battle to return water service to residents.
“The City of Bradford was without water for five days,” Disney said. “After the water main was repaired, several weeks elapsed before the system fully recovered.”
Bradford City declared a state of emergency to begin the process in applying for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Gov. Tom Wolf, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and Pennsylvania Army National Guard were all involved in the process of getting clean water to the thousands who needed it.
Kim Benjamin, who was then the executive director of the water authority, held daily public meetings to keep the community apprised of what was happening.
By Feb. 26, some water pressure was beginning to return to some households, but pressure was low and residents who did have water were asked to use it sparingly. They were under a boil water advisory, too.
The declaration of emergency was rescinded March 2, with customers finally told they could return to normal water use levels. However, Benjamin estimated at that time that hundreds of customers were likely still without water due to frozen service lines or frozen household pipes.
“The water authority and the entire community including many state agencies all came together during this event and eventually things returned to normal, but this issue highlighted the vulnerability of the water system and only having one single supply line,” said Disney.
He continued, “The Bradford City Water Authority (BCWA) mission statement states that ‘Our goal is to provide our customers with a reliable, consistent, safe and adequate supply of water, answering the demands of residential, commercial, and industrial users…’ During that tragic event in February of 2015, the authority board realized that if we were to continue to support that mission statement, some creative actions would need to be undertaken and solutions found to eliminate these risks.”
Disney explained that after the break, the authority did a feasibility study and looked at where the most vulnerable part of the system were. They felt losing the supply line between customers and the water treatment plant would be disastrous.
This led to a plan, announced Thursday, to install an additional 20-inch transmission main between the water treatment plant and Reservoir #4 by the university.
