McComb will remain under a city-wide boil-water notice through at least Saturday as city employees scramble to find a leak that has been blamed for the loss of some 4 million gallons and a loss of pressure to the system, Mayor Quordiniah Lockley said.
Lockley said late Thursday morning that city employees are returning their focus to looking for a significant water main break after technicians determined that the computer monitoring system that controls the plant, which was believed to have been malfunctioning, was operating properly.
The mayor said that despite the fact that some 4 million gallons have escaped the water system, crews have still been unable to detect the leak and he is again enlisting the public’s help to notify public works at 601-684-3497 if they see water puddling up from the street or running into a ditch.
Even when the water main break is found, it still must be fixed, and even then it will take two consecutive days of clean samples before state health officials lift the boil-water notice. That would make Saturday the earliest the notice could be lifted.
“We’ve got to fix it and then we’ve got to send it for the samples, but the biggest thing right now is for us to find it and that’s why we are asking citizens again, if you hear water running give us a call because we’re out here looking,” Lockley said. “If you see water flowing down by a creek or drainage or by your house, that’s an indication that’s where the leak is.”
The water main break follows an extended period of freezing weather and plummeting temperatures earlier in the week that threatened plumbing across the region.
The loss in pressure came just after temperatures rose above freezing on Wednesday, and pipes usually burst after temperatures rise and water starts flowing again, puncturing plumbing with chunks of lodged ice.
The difficulty in finding the leak is what led city officials to suspect a malfunction of the water plant’s computerized Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system, known as SCADA, but technicians “evaluated the SCADA system and has determined that it is working perfectly,” Lockley said.
“They have determined that we do have a major leak that is not visible right now and we have to do our due diligence in trying to find out where this leak is,” he said.
Employees from every city department have been enlisted to drive around and look for the leak, and some were going into wooded areas on the edges of town.
“Basically they have driven all of the streets,” Lockley said. “We have had over 4 million gallons of water on the ground. It had to go somewhere.”
The city’s water system is being pressurized in the meantime on an emergency basis with three of five pumps at a time in order to prevent the machines’ motors from burning out, Lockley said.
That arrangement could make for lower-than-normal water pressure.
“We’ve got three of them running at the same time, trying to maintain a level of pressure, but it cannot provide enough pressure for the whole city,” Lockley said. “You want to at least try to keep the pressure up to a level to where people can go to the bathroom.”
But people couldn’t even do that at the Golden Corral, which was closed Thursday due to the loss in water pressure.
“The ice killed us to begin with. That’s when it all started,” owner Buddy Powell said, lamenting the blow the weather has dealt his business this week. “Of course, you know people couldn’t get to work. As soon as we get ready to open back up the water pipes have busted. It’s killing us. Basically it has shut us down.”
Powell said the boil-water notice won’t prevent the restaurant from being able to prepare food, and it would have to serve bottled water, which is what’s being done at Huey Magoo’s, his other restaurant down the street.
“Huey Magoo’s is easy because you just don’t use a lot of water for a lot of stuff,” he said.
Powell was hoping the city could at least resolve the water pressure issue before he loses too much business.
“If we can get more pressure we can do it because we’ve got to run our bathrooms and stuff like that,” he said. “We can operate under a boil notice as long as we’ve got pressure.”
Here are some tips from the Mississippi State Department of Health, which regulates water systems, on what to do during a boil-water notice.
DO NOT
Do not drink tap water while the water system is under a boil water advisory.
Do not drink from water fountains in parks, public or private buildings that receive water from the affected system.
Do not use ice unless it has been made with boiled water. Freezing will not necessarily kill harmful bacteria.
Do not use tap water to make drinks, juices, or fountain soft drinks.
DO
Wash your dishes in boiled water or use paper plates for the next few days.
Wash your fruits and vegetables with boiled or bottled water since they may have been exposed to affected water from grocery store sprayers.
Wash your hands and bathe as usual. Bathing is safe as long as no water is swallowed.
Brush your teeth with boiled or bottled water.
Cook with tap water if the food will be boiled for at least one minute.
AND REMEMBER:
Properly chlorinated water in swimming pools is safe.
Fish in aquariums are not affected.
Bringing water to a rolling boil for one minute will inactivate all major types of harmful bacteria.
When your boil-water notice is lifted:
Flush faucets for a total of 10 minutes to introduce system water throughout house plumbing.
Example:
1 faucet — run for 10 minutes
2 faucets — run both for 5 minutes
3 faucets — run each for 3-4 minutes
Flush any faucet a minimum of 2 minutes to ensure clearing of the line serving the faucet.
Discard any drinks, ice, food, etc, made during the boil water notice.
Rewash any food or drink contact items (knives, forks, plates, etc.) with "cleared" system water.
Check water filters (in faucets, refrigerators and elsewhere) and replace if necessary.
Do not use water from your hot water heater for drinking until several exchanges of the tank have occurred.
Run dishwasher through a cycle or two before washing dishes.
