CFPUA work will repair water valves as part of its Valve Replacement Program,
refurbish water main to increase its lifespan at a significant cost savings
Outage and PBWA to cover the following: 600-800 blks. of 4th St., 600 blk., 701 & 704 5th St.,
All of Fallows Alley, and 500 blk., 318 Queen St.
Outage to take place from 9:00 a.m. to approximately 5:00 p.m.;
Precautionary Boil Water Advisories follow outage
Outage and PBWA was first scheduled last week, postponed due to difficulty with a key valve
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Mike McGill
(910) 332-6704
After Hours: (910) 622-8472
mike.mcgill@cfpua.org
WILMINGTON, NC, February 7, 2017: This week, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority (CFPUA) will conduct a planned service outage and will issue a precautionary boil water advisory (PBWA) for a section of downtown Wilmington. Crews will repair several water valves in the areas as part of CFPUA’s valve replacement program and will refurbish a water main under 4th Street at a significant cost savings. As a result of the efforts, a service outage will be required Wednesday for the addresses listed above, between 9 a.m. and approximately 5 p.m. The outage is expected to affect approximately 100 customers. The work was initially scheduled for last week but postponed due to difficulty with a key valve that was needed to complete the service shutdown.
A precautionary boil water advisory are issued after an outage is over because periods of low or no pressure increase the potential for the introduction of bacteria into the water system. Once service is restored, CFPUA customers in the above described area are asked to boil their water for one minute then allow it to cool prior to consumption or utilize another water source such as bottled water. Consumption includes drinking, brushing teeth, making ice, food preparation, pet consumption, fruit and vegetable washing, and the preparation of baby formula. Customers do NOT need to boil water prior to using it for showering or bathing.
CFPUA is asking the media for assistance with getting out the word because of the number of addresses affected. The Precautionary Boil Water Advisory shall be in effect until water quality testing has occurred and services have returned to normal, typically within 24 hours. The lifting of the advisory will occur in one or more of the following ways: hand-delivered announcement, a post on www.cfpua.org, a recorded phone message at 332-6500, a phone notification from New Hanover County’s emergency alert system, and/or a press release to area media outlets.
A precautionary boil water advisory is a public health announcement. When issued, the public should assume there is an elevated risk of their water being unsafe to drink. An advisory can be issued after: incidents that compromise the distribution system (ex. water main break); failure of/substantial interruption in water treatment processes that result in increased turbidity levels or particle counts; mechanical or equipment failure; violations of the total coliform rule or the turbidity standard of the surface water treatment rule; or a natural disaster - www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking.
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Cape Fear Public Utility Authority (CFPUA) was formed by the City of Wilmington and New Hanover County to combine their water and sewer operations. It began operations on July 1, 2008. Today, the Authority serves more than 67,000 water customer accounts and more than 65,000 wastewater customer accounts. It oversees more than 1,000 miles of water distribution mains and nearly 1,000 miles of sewer mains. For more information, visit www.cfpua.org or contact CFPUA’s Communications staff at communications@cfpua.org.