A major break in the North Congress Street water transmission line early Tuesday morning left Athens residents without water, as fire hydrants spewed their contents into streets throughout the day.
The city of Athens announced water shortages, a boil order and the closing of Uptown businesses Tuesday, as the city Department of Engineering and Public Works attempted to repair the break.
By 3:20 p.m., the break had been repaired and water reserves began gradually refilling, according to a city update.
The broken water pipe is about 80 years old, said Andy Stone, director of Engineering and Public Works.
Though the city tries to annually repair old water pipes, Stone said Athens had not pinpointed this particular transmission line.
After the water line was repaired and reserves began to be refilled, a boil order was issued for almost all of Athens as well as Ohio University’s campus, according to the update.
The order — lasting from 4 p.m. Tuesday until 10 p.m. Wednesday — recommended that all Athens water users boil their water for three minutes before consumption.
Many buildings were closed because of the line break, including the Athens County Courthouse, the Athens City Building and some operations at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital.
The contamination and lack of water interfered with Uptown restaurants, which were forced to temporarily close their doors at about 1 p.m., said Charles Hammer, administrator for the Athens City-County Health Department.
“If you don’t have water, you can’t do that, and you can’t operate within the parameters,” Hammer said. “It is a violation of Ohio law to serve certain foods and carry out procedures without potable water. (Closing businesses) keeps people safe.”
Without water, many restaurants chose not to open Tuesday morning, but the health department forced others to close, including Goodfella’s Pizza, 6 W. Union Street, which made pizza using bottled water, said owner Rachael Ritchie.
“This morning, we went and picked up gallons of water on East State Street, and it was business as usual,” Ritchie said. “A lot of other businesses opted to not open at all, and it pushed business our way.”
—Cassie Kelly contributed to this article.
sh335311@ohiou.edu
