East Dunkard issues boil water advisory for Davistown area
Mike Jones/Observer-Reporter
People living in the Davistown area and rely on the East Dunkard Water Authority are once again being asked to boil their water after an outage was reported Saturday.
The notice was issued shortly before noon Saturday after the authority said there was a power failure that caused the Donley tank to drain of water about 8 a.m.
That prompted the authority to raise concerns about water quality, asking Davistown customers in Dunkard Township to boil water, although many were still without water as of Sunday morning. Once the Donley tank is refilled, the authority will begin testing water samples to see when it is safe to drink the water without boiling.
“A loss of positive water pressure is a signal of the existence of conditions that could allow contamination to enter the distribution system through back-flow by back pressure or back siphonage. As a result, there is an increased chance that the water may contain disease-causing organisms.
The authority sent a notice to all affected customers, and also posted additional information on its website and Facebook page. It expected to update customers through those channels when the boil water is lifted.
The authority is also setting up a water tanker at Township Building Road and Bunner Hill Road and Pigeon Hole Road. Customers are asked to bring their own containers to fill.
The East Dunkard Water Authority has been plagued with problems and boil advisories in recent years, culminating in a system-wide outage that left all customers without water for three days in late October.
Pennsylvania American Water Co., which agreed to purchase the troubled authority for $5 million last July, was awarded a court-ordered receivership of the system in February following an emergency request by the state Department of Environmental Protection, and has been managing it since. The state Public Utility Commission is expected to finalize and approve the sale soon.