LEWISTON – A leaking valve in a fire sprinkler system at a Forrestal Street warehouse early Tuesday morning wound up shutting down water service to 35 area businesses, including the L-A College campus.

Water crews learned of the leak about 3:30 a.m., according to Kevin Gagne, deputy director of public services. City crews had Forrestal Street water service turned off by 6 a.m. while they made repairs to the water valve.

City water crews are cleaning and lining the water lines in the Westminster Street area just south of Forrestal Street, but Gagne said that work is unrelated to the line break. Crews built a temporary above-ground water supply for Westminster Street customers as part of the cleaning project. Those above ground water lines were supplied by water from Forrestal Street.

“The bottom line is, if we were not doing the clean and line work, the broken valve would have affected maybe five customers,” Gagne said. “But since all the temporary lines were coming from Forrestal, we wound up shutting down service to 35 customers.”

The leaking valve was repaired and service restored by 11 a.m.

Bob Caswell, public affairs director for the University of Southern Maine, said not having water service caused few problems on campus. The city and the school set up portable toilets outside and food service was closed for the morning.

“But other than a few inconveniences, we didn’t have to close or cancel any classes,” he said.