by Gabrielle Dawkins, originally posted on January 24, 2017

There’s no school Wednesday in Twiggs County, and the city is under a 24-hour water boil advisory.

Gabrielle Dawkins took a trip to Jeffersonville to find out the root of the problem.

Superintendent, Elgin Dixon, says that he had to make a split decision to cancel school.

“We had low water pressure almost to no water and we can not function in the school because of the low water pressure,” said Dixon.

Below is the press release from Twiggs County Public Schools.

An 8-inch distribution main pipe burst near the school. Sidney Lattimore, the consultant for the Water Department in Jeffersonville, says the water tank is nine feet lower than normal.

Lattimore says that the water level is normally 122 feet and they’re working toward fixing the problem.

“Right now, we’re flushing out the lines from two fire hydrants above and below the break. After that, I’ll take BacT samples from both ends of the system out of those two hydrants,” said Lattimore.

He’ll send samples of that water to Dublin for testing, and in 24 hours they’ll have the results.

“I always use this analogy that somewhere, some mother is getting some water out of a faucet and handing it to her little child. I want to make sure that that water is safe to drink,” said Lattimore.

Although Twiggs County’s three public schools are closed Wednesday, they’re asking staff to report at their normal times.

Jeffersonville has had a series of water problems over the years involving system problems. The city says they’ve gotten a grant of $299,100  to help fix the pumps and fire hydrants.