WESTFIELD – A combination of water use for irrigation and the failure of pumps pushed to supply water cause an alarming drop in water pressure early this morning.
Water Resource Superintendent Dave Billips said that water consumption for lawn irrigation early in the morning and the failure of a couple of pumps dropped water pressure to below 50 pounds per square inch in many areas of the city. Typically pressure in the city’s water system is about 120 PSI.
“The system is recovering now,” Billips said late this morning. “Downtown is back up to 80 pounds (per-square-inch) and other parts of the city are back up to 120 PSI, but we’re have trouble keeping it up to 50 pounds in the Western Avenue section. Pressure in certain parts of town is worse than others.”
Billips said the pressure started to drop around 4 a.m. today when many automated lawn irrigation systems are programmed to start.
“We can only pump so much water with the reservoir offline” to maintain pressure Billips said. The pressure situation is exasperated by the fact that Granville Reservoir, which pressurizes much of the system because of its elevation, is offline for dam and transmission line repairs.
Billips said the pumps pushing water into the city’s storage tanks, also located at an elevation of about 300 feet above sea level, are working “at full capacity” which contributed. Two of the pumps went offline for about 90 minutes early this morning because of an alarm.
“We’d like to remind residents that the mandatory water ban is still in effect,” Billips said. “Unless residents comply with the ban the (Water Commission) may have to approve a total ban for all nonessential outdoor water use, but we don’t want to do that.”
The Water Commission authorized the Water Resource Department in April to impose an outdoor water use ban while the reservoir is off line and the city’s entire water supply is drawn from the well system.
The commission approved two bans, an odd-even ban which will allow residents to use water for outdoor uses, such as irrigation, recreation, and property or vehicle maintenance, three days a week. A total ban on Monday is needed to recharge the city’s storage tanks after the weekend water usage, which is typically higher than weekday usage.
The commission also authorized the department to impose a total outdoor water ban if circumstances, such as a dry spell or equipment failure, dictate the need to reduce water consumption.
Residents are asked to check the programming of their automatic lawn irrigation systems to ensure they comply with the three-day-a week-ban.
“Some residents may have been confused when we lifted the boil-water order, thinking that we lifted the usage ban,” Billips said. The Boil water order was issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection after bacteria was found on water from Pump #5 located off Northwest Road.
