PARIS – Early risers in Paris may not have had a strong shower on Tuesday, but today should be a different story.

According to Steve Arnold, utility manager for the town, a broken water main on Western Avenue was fixed between 7:30 and 8 a.m. on Tuesday.

“The system’s back online,” Arnold said.

The rupture on Monday reduced the 500,000 gallons of water in the reservoir on Hooper Ledge Road to 200,000 gallons and washed sediment and rocks onto the road. A portion of the road was washed out, and traffic was detoured while repairs took place. The road is now open to traffic.

Arnold said stress to a 12-inch pipe sitting on a piece of ledge caused the break. The flow of water from the break increased Monday after workers tried to stop the initial problem, leaving the pipe submerged. Arnold said the location of the rupture was determined after water had been pumped away.

A section of pipe was removed and replaced, and valves were reopened to restore the flow. The ledge was removed to prevent the problem from recurring at the site.

Arnold said the Paris Utility District also conducted maintenance flushing to insure no material had been deposited in the pipe. Chloride residual testing was also conducted.

While structures on Western Avenue and its side streets were most affected by the break, pressure to the town was also inhibited due to the diversion of water in many different locations to isolate the leak.

Arnold hoped the reservoir would be refilled by Tuesday night.

“We’ve probably got a little less than a third back in the reservoir,” he said. “We’ll run the pumps around the clock until it’s filled.”

The break forced the closing of all schools in SAD 17. The Paris Elementary School, Oxford Hills Middle School and Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School were directly affected by the incident.

“You have no fire protection, and you have no water,” said SAD 17 Superintendent Mark Eastman. “You can’t flush toilets, you can’t prepare lunch, you can’t drink, you can’t do anything.”

Eastman said all of the district’s schools were closed because the meals for the district are prepared in a central kitchen at the high school. He described the district as a “web,” with transportation and programs for several schools affected by the closing of the Paris schools.

Eastman expected that the schools would be back in session today.

Town manager Sharon Jackson said the town received a donation of Poland Spring water in five-gallon and one-liter containers. She said by 1 p.m., approximately 100 residents had been given water.