CADY KUZMICH
Gazette Reporter
WATERFORD & HALFMOON — Three area schools closed for a second day Wednesday as Waterford and Halfmoon continue to urge residents and businesses to conserve water in the wake of a water emergency caused by a water main rupture in Troy over the weekend.
Waterford and Halfmoon have relied on Troy’s water supply since dangerous levels of PCBs were detected in the Hudson River, their former source of water. Halfmoon Supervisor Kevin Tollisen told The Daily Gazette he heard the pipe that burst was over 100 years old.
After the initial water main ruptured, a secondary pipeline connected to Troy over the 126 Street Bridge between Lansingburgh and Waterford was activated but partially failed — bringing in only a third of the water it was expected to supply.
Troy has a team working on the water main today, and repairs are expected to be completed by Friday at the earliest.
“Troy is telling us they have no idea why the backup line has failed,” said Waterford Supervisor John Lawler. That connection is supplying the towns of Waterford and Halfmoon with 13,000 gallons of water per minute. The two towns share that water source — leaving just 400 gallons per minute for the town of Waterford, Lawler said.
Mechanicville City School District, Waterford-Halfmoon Union Free School and St. Mary’s Catholic School in Waterford were closed Tuesday and today. School officials are still determining plans for the rest of the week.
At Mechanicville and Halfmoon-Waterford districts, all on-campus classes, athletic events and extra-curriculars have been canceled, but off-campus events are being held as scheduled.
Mechanicville City School District will continue to provide transportation to BOCES programs, outside special education placements, Tec-Smart Programs and off campus athletic events.
Waterford Police Dispatcher Supervisor Paul McInerney said the intersection of Saratoga Avenue and Clifton Street as well as the intersection of Grace Street and First Avenue are still closed so that the town could run a 5-inch fire house to get water from the city of Cohoes. The emergency line is connected to a fire hydrant in front of Clifton Street and Saratoga Avenue, and is supplying the Waterford with between 300 and 500 gallons of water per minute, McInerney said.
Halfmoon Supervisor Tollisen said the water in Halfmoon is safe and drinkable. In Waterford, the State Department of Health has requested a boil water advisory.
“I think everybody’s getting scared,” said Don Bowles of Don and Paul’s Coffee Shoppe on Broad Street in Waterford. The coffee shop shut down its ice machine and juice machine, but remains open, Bowles said.
“My business is down about 50 percent right now,” he said. “I’m just going to suck it up and hopefully in a week or so everything will be back to normal. There isn’t a heck of a lot you can do about it.”
Bowles said he bought 10 cases of bottled water to give to customers after the boil water advisory was issued. “I know they’re giving water out at the rescue squad, but I figure that’s for people who really need it.”
Potable water and bottled water are available at the Peck Hose Fire Company and the Waterford Rescue Squad between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. according to the town of Waterford website.
Lawler said that as of this morning, about 2,000 people in Waterford has picked up bottled water.
In Halfmoon, a tanker truck with potable water and bottled water was available at the town Highway Department, at 322 Route 146.
While 25 homes in Waterford were completely without water Tuesday afternoon, Lawler said doesn’t expect any large scale water outages for the town.
“We’ve made some progress,” he said noting that with conservation efforts and the emergency water connection with Cohoes, the town stabilized water flow yesterday. “We are hoping water levels will increase and hoping to get folks back on water by this evening,” he said.
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