Residents of Lorain found themselves issued a precautionary boil advisory yesterday after a communications outage at the Water Purification Plant led to the draining of the Red Hill Water Tower. According to Cleveland 19 NEWS, from just shy of midnight until around 5:15 am, there was an interruption in the cellular signal needed for the plant's operations. This disruption in communication caused concerns over the potential for reduced water pressure, prompting the city to take precautionary measures.
The disruption was meant to quickly drain the Red Hill Water Tower and affected several areas within the city's pressure district. Residents on streets, including Appleseed Dr and Broadway Ave, among numerous others, were advised to boil their water or use alternative sources such as bottled water. As Fox 8 reported, the city urged that water be brought to a full boil for a minimum of three minutes and allowed to cool before use, and that the advisory would remain in place for a minimum of 24 hours.
Approximately 3,000 connections to the water utility within the Red Hill Pressure District were affected by the boil advisory. "The pumps that supply that water tower at our pumping station need that cellular signal to know when to turn on and turn off," Joseph A. Carbonaro, director of utilities for the city, explained in a statement obtained by The Chronicle. "If they’re not receiving that cellular signal, they’re not operating. And the operators back at the plant can’t see what the tower level is at because there’s no cellular signal."
In the midst of the confusion, city officials still initiated the boil advisory, although they were unsure if water pressure had indeed dropped below the minimum of 20 pounds per square inch. "We’re unsure if anybody actually dropped below 20 psi due to the outage because we lost cellular signal to our tower for about five hours," Carbonaro said, according to The Chronicle. "This is why it’s all precautionary." The city turned to Amherst for assistance to help supply water to affected areas, specifically seeking to quickly restore service and pressure to the district. Furthermore, Carbonaro mentioned that their department was working to create "fail safes" to prevent future similar occurrences, acknowledging a heavy reliance on internet providers for remote communications.
In accordance with necessary protocols before lifting a boil advisory, water samples were collected the same day and were set to be analyzed within 24 hours to confirm the water's safety. Residents should expect an update on the status of the advisory following the results of these tests. They were reminded to boil their water until the order was officially rescinded and encouraged to contact the City of Lorain Water Distribution Department for updates.
