SHUTDOWN INFORMATION
North Park Water has more than 260 miles of water main buried beneath the ground. The Utility Crew spends hundreds of hours each year maintaining, replacing, and repairing the buried assets. Occasionally, the Crew needs to shut down a section of water main that feeds individual water laterals to residential homes and businesses. In most situations, the Crew is able to go door to door notifying customers before the shutdown occurs. During some emergency situations, there is little or no time to notify customers of a shutdown.
All current known water outages, both planned and unplanned are shown on our "Outages" page. If you are within the outage zone, you should have received a notice on your front door. An example notice can be on the "Outages" page on the website (see "helpful links". Notice will include the date and time of the shutdown, the approximate time the water should be restored, and instructions if you will be under a boil order. See the example below of a shutdown notice.
HELPFUL LINKS
WHAT TO DO IF YOU RECEIVE A NOTIFICATION OF A WATER SHUT DOWN
BEFORE THE SHUTDOWN
DURING THE SHUTDOWN
AFTER THE SHUTDOWN
BEFORE THE SHUTDOWN
- Fill a couple of buckets with water for cooking, washing, and flushing the toilet. A toilet will flush when approximately a gallon of water is dumped in the bowl.
- Have a potable water container filled with water for drinking.
DURING THE SHUTDOWN
- Try not to operate the water faucets. This will prevent air from entering your plumbing.
AFTER THE SHUTDOWN
- Water is sometimes discolored after water main breaks. This orange/red color is normal and comes from sedimentation, but needs to be flushed out. Do not use this water for consumption.
- Turn on cold water from a faucet closest to your water meter until the water clears up.
- If the water does not clear within 5-10 minutes, wait 30 minutes and try again.
- Do not use your hot water or a faucet that is connected to your home’s filter system. This may draw debris through the water heater or filter system.
- A knocking sound is common during flushing. This is caused by air in the water line which needs to be flushed out.
- If you note reduced water flow in a faucet, check the faucet aerator (screens) for debris and clean accordingly. If this does not restore flow, contact North Park Water during normal business hours for further guidance.
- If you received a boil order notice, follow the helpful instructions below until the boil order advisory is lifted. You will receive another notice on your front door when the boil order advisory has been lifted.
WHAT IS A BOIL ORDER?
Boil orders occur when the pressure within the main drops below 20 psi (pounds per square inch). In order to ensure no bacteriological growth has occurred due to a drop in pressure, samples are taken when the water is restored. While those samples are being analyzed over the following 20 hours, a boil order restriction is put in place. Once the sample is confirmed to have no bacteriological growth, the boil order is removed and water can be used without restriction. For more information on the boil order steps, see the graphics to the right.
WHY DO WATERMAINS BREAK?
There are many reasons that watermain breaks occur. Some of our 260+ miles of water main are over 70 years old! Age, change in pressure, and a change in temperature can cause cracks and breaks to occur without warning.
Attention and care to the investment in the replacement of aging water main prior to failure is an important part of our capital programming.