Much of the North and East End of Waterbury remain without running water, but Mayor Paul Pernerewski said Sunday the city had made significant progress in restoring water to parts of the city.
However, he stopped short of giving a time frame of when all residents would have potable water again.
Pernerewski said at a Sunday press conference that water began flowing in the Bunker Hill section of the city as well as parts of neighboring Watertown on Saturday night. Both of the city’s hospitals, Waterbury Hospital and St. Mary’s, have water and were back at full service, he said.
The latest water main break occurred around 11 p.m. on Friday night. A transmission main line failed as crews were continuing work on a water main break on Thomaston Avenue that had occurred on Wednesday. Since then, much of the city has been without water.
Parts of neighboring towns Watertown, Wolcott and Prospect were also affected.
“The overriding issue is to restore water service to the city of Waterbury,” Pernerewski said. “I’m happy to report at this time that both hospitals are fully supplied with water. Both hospitals are both fully operational. There’s no longer a diversion out of St. Mary’s. Both hospitals are open for business right now and they are continuing to provide services.”
He added that “much of the downtown continues to receive water from the 12-inch gravity fed line.”
A spokesperson for the mayor said about 60 percent of the city remains without water, which was an improvement from about 75 percent of residents without water on Saturday.
Pernerewski said the city has been able to determine what happened on Thomaston Avenue.
“It was a large failure,” Pernerewski said. “The pipe was washed out and underneath has collapsed. It is actually more significant than we had initially thought. It’s going to take some time to get that fixed.”
“We continue to work on ways to get water to the full city as soon as possible and I’m hoping to have some things to report on that sooner rather than later,” he added.
Bradley Malay, Waterbury’s superintendent of water, reiterated that the main break was much worse than first thought.
“We got into the pit this morning, the affected area (on Thomaston Avenue), and that area is much worse than we thought it was going to be,” Malay said.
“Right now, we are formulating a Plan B for the city. We are going to try to divert water and create a new section for the main that will allow us to feed the city while we work on the two main breaks that are currently happening.”
In the meantime, bottled water was distributed by the Connecticut National Guard and other volunteer organizations to affected residents on Sunday at Municipal Stadium (1200 Watertown Avenue) and Crosby High School and will again on Monday. The mayor said the Crosby site was busier on Sunday because the east side of town is without water. Pernerewski said the city will continue to distribute water until everyone in the city has running water.
“We still have issues with some of the sanitary issues of being able to run water, take showers and flush the toilet. But at least we have the potable water that we are able to get out to people to alleviate some of the problems,” Pernerewski said.
A boil water advisory remains active for the entire city that requires residents without water to boil all tap water for consumption and cooking until further notice.
Waterbury Public Schools have cancelled all classes on Monday Dec. 15 in the city.