The pump-operated water system supplying water up the valley to the Jackson Oaks and Holiday Lake Estates neighborhoods is fully repaired after a pipe blew Wednesday, but the city and California Department of Public Health are advising about 500 households in the area to boil their tap water before drinking or cooking with it.
After a pipe delivering water out of the “Jackson Oaks booster” station off East Dunne Avenue, which sits on a ridge on the east side of the valley, failed Wednesday, some of the water already in the system might have “backflowed” into the water supply, Morgan Hill utilities system manager Mario Iglesias said.
“We don’t know the quality of the water that backflowed into our system, and it was agreed we should issue a boil water notice,” Iglesias said.
The city must conduct a series of tests on the water over the next 48 hours, after which the notice will be lifted if the tests come back clean, Iglesias said.
The notice warns the affected residents to boil all water used for drinking or cooking, but does not apply to bathing, showering or water used for washing clothing, though Iglesias said affected residents should not open their mouths while showering. Residents should use bottled water to drink.
Plus, city crews are delivering 3 gallon bottled water containers to the affected residents, Iglesias said.
The city’s emergency services office will also send out a phone and e-mail alert to residents of the area notifying them of the boiling or bottled water requirement.
The disrupted service resulted Wednesday when a fitting for a pipe connected to the Jackson Oaks booster off East Dunne Avenue, near the entrance to Holiday Lake Estate, failed, Iglesias said.
The city was able to keep water running for the affected residents for a while after the pipe fitting failed, as they filled a large storage tank in Jackson Oaks before beginning repairs, Iglesias said.
The repair process was tedious because the broken fitting was buried beneath layers of concrete. Iglesias said the booster station is about 6.5 years old, and he does not know why the fitting failed.
“It’s unusual for a fitting like this to fail,” Iglesias said.
City staff initially thought about 300 homes were affected by the service failure, but that number climbed to about 500 by Thursday afternoon, Iglesias said.
Service was fully restored by noon Thursday.
