Dayton officials believe the city’s water was never compromised and unsafe to consume last week during a major water main break.
The city issued a precautionary water boil advisory on Wednesday to ensure that the break did not put people’s health at risk, but water tests and other evidence gathered since then strongly suggests the water quality was not harmed, said Michael Powell, director of Dayton’s water department.
“There’s no changes in water quality that we noticed,” Powell said.
The city has received only a handful of calls about air in the line or rusty water, which were investigated and crews tried to address by flushing hydrants in those areas, Powell said.
Dayton customers who encounter rusty or cloudy water can call the dispatch number at (937) 333-4905, Powell said.
The break caused the city to lose 2.5 million gallons of water in 10 minutes.
Powell said at this time the city does not know how much the break will end up costing the city.
Some expenses include the treated water lost during the break, the response measures needed to locate and remedy the break and the future repairs to the line and system.
The city will work to “deconstruct” what happened and will use its findings to try to identify other parts of the system that might be susceptible to a similar problem and prevent future problems, Powell said.
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