Broken valve leads to boil water advisory in Olean’s Seneca Heights

boy Bob Clark Olean, originally posted on June 22, 2016

 

OLEAN — Oleanders living in Seneca Heights are still being asked to boil their water after the city depressurized the system there following a water main break.

“Yesterday (Tuesday), the city water department was replacing a fire hydrant,” Mayor Bill Aiello said, noting the valve was on the corner of East Ohio and Virginia streets. “They went to turn the valve back on, the valve broke and they had to replace it.

“The valve was replaced by around 10 p.m.,” Aiello said, but in order to complete the repair, the city needed to depressurize the water system in the neighborhood, affecting “A good portion of the Seneca Heights.”

The city sent out an announcement at 10:15 p.m. encouraging residents to drink bottled water for 24 hours after the line was depressurized.

The Olean water system serves approximately 15,000 people in the Olean, the town of Olean and the town of Portville through almost 6,300 metered connections, according to the city’s 2015 annual water report. In 2015, the city produced more than 1.21 billion gallons of treated water.

Aiello said he was unsure of how many homes were affected in the neighborhood, which makes up a large portion of the city’s Third Ward.

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