BUCKFIELD – Residents here are under a “boil water” order until further notice, after a water main ruptured around 5 p.m. Wednesday. The break initially left all 185 Buckfield Village Corp. customers without water.
By 10 p.m., about one-third of those had been restored, but crews had yet to locate the break, said Town Manager Glen Holmes. The Buckfield Junior-Senior High School was not affected because it has its own water supply.
The town’s water tank lost about 300,000 gallons in two to three hours, Holmes said, “so we are trying to locate a 300,000-gallon puddle” as they search for the break.
Initially, because no puddle showed aboveground, crews thought the break might have been in a pipe beneath the Nezinscot River near the intersection of routes 140 and 117, Holmes said.
“But the thinking on that has changed,” and crews then were looking at the east side of town, Holmes said. To locate the break, crews were isolating various parts of the system using shutoff valves and checking pressure in each between the shut off portions of piping.
A temporary 4-inch service will be installed once the break has been found, Holmes said. Plans are to get contractors in this morning to begin more permanent repairs, provided the break has been found.
A temporary service, Holmes said, would last as long as necessary, and the water would be chlorinated.
But, he warned, pressure will be reduced, and all residents should boil their water until further notice.
The town recently completed a $1.2 million water-pipe replacement project, which did not replace all town pipes. “You can only replace so many at a time,” Holmes said.
Staff writer Rebecca Goldfine contributed to this story.
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