MWRA asks all communities in Greater Boston to stop using water

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Due to a major leak in an aqueduct MWRA is telling us not to use water and to boil anything we do use.

See here for details:
http://www.mwra.com/updates/leak.html

Comments

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this!

[countlibras.livejournal.com]

... and I was in the middle of drinking tap water when I saw this. >_<

[eustaciavye.livejournal.com]

added to to do list: buy gallon jugs of water.

At least its safe for bathing.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

was just going to post this as well.... strange that cambridge is its own little island that isn't effected.

[vibrantabyss.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that! Word spread as I could. Odd that Cambridge is not on the list, even tho they seem surrounded by affected towns. Where do they get water from?

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting this!

[tober.livejournal.com]

I think Cambridge may be able to get water from the MWRA, but normally it gets its water from Fresh Pond and another reservoir which belongs to Cambridge but is located in Waltham and whose name escapes me at the moment.

[zenala.livejournal.com]

"Cambridge Reservoir"?

[ursamajor]

Hmm, that notice seems to specifically exclude Cambridge. At first, I thought it was just a mistake, but apparently Cambridge only uses MWRA water as a backup?

Edit: tober answered my question :)

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

That's right. See here:
http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x1406499603/Cambridge-not-affected-by-major-water-main-break

[tober.livejournal.com]

Actually, no. You spurred me to look it up. There are two surface reservoirs for Cambridge beyond Fresh Pond - according to http://www.cambridgema.gov/CWD/watershed.cfm they are Hobbs Brook Reservoir and Stony Brook Reservoir. There is also an underground storage facility for finished (i.e. potable) Cambridge water in Belmont.

[ursamajor]

Gotcha! Glad to have positive confirmation, thank you! :)

[zenala.livejournal.com]

"Hobbs Brook Reservoir" is, in fact, listed as "Cambridge Reservoir" on google maps, which was where I got my information... (I realize not an error-free authoritative source).

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I hope it's not too contaminated, because I've been drinking tap water all day.

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

When will the City of Somerville make a robo-call?

[notnatalie.livejournal.com]

Just for those who may be wondering, Brita and similar charcoal type filters don't help. Still gotta boil it.

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

just got it!

[enhf94.livejournal.com]

They're going out now, and I heard it first on Som'l's CTY text messages. Kudos, Jackie.

[readsalot.livejournal.com]

I think it's more that the water we're getting hasn't been treated or tested, so they don't know what's in it, and would rather we didn't take chances. Says another person who's been drinking tap water all day.

[forever-dreams.livejournal.com]

If you want, you can come over and we can have a tap water party! Cambridge is so ok since we get our water from somewhere else.

[turil.livejournal.com]

What don't they help with? Most water from "the wild" is just filtered with charcoal filters, I believe. You know for camping and such.

[ron_newman]

Cambridge has its own reservoirs and water system, out in Waltham and Lincoln, totally separate from MWRA.

[ron_newman]

I came home to one at 5:59 tonight.

[larksdream]

Absolutely not; unless they're really keen on exploring the joys of giardia, campers use (expen$ive) filters with holes that are too small for bacteria and virii to pass through. Charcoal is inadequate. Bleach works but doesn't taste so great.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

It's that they're using a backup system which includes reservoirs (like the Chestnut Hill Reservoir) and aqueducts (like the Sudbury Aqueduct) that used to be in regular use for transporting drinking water but are now too contaminated by local runoff or too poorly maintained (read: porous) to be considered "safe for drinking." My guess is that as long as it's not raining (meaning that combined sewer overflows are not in use), the water is *probably* mostly free of harmful bacteria, although those systems have been out of regular use for decades so I wouldn't trust them.