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A Lisbon Water Department employee directs traffic while other employees search for a water main leak at the intersection of North Market Street and Jerome Street on Wednesday morning. Bill Hoover, chairman of the Lisbon Board of Public Affairs, said workers have been out since 4:30 a.m. searching for the leak while half of Lisbon remains without water. (Photo by Evan Houk)
LISBON – A water main break that has left a large portion of Lisbon without water was discovered early Thursday morning after a nearly 24-hour search for the leak.
Mayor Peter Wilson said the leak had been found early Thursday morning in front of the courthouse. He said there is no expected time for “full resumption of service.”
Lisbon Schools are closed today.
Bill Hoover, chairman of the board of public affairs, said around 4 p.m. Wednesday that he doesn’t expect there to be water tonight because the leak has not yet been found.
He said the location of the leak has been pinpointed to an area on North Market Street between Jerome Street and another cross street.
“They’re at it and they’ll stay at it until they get it fixed,” Hoover said.
The water department issued a boil order as a precaution, Hoover said. All residents should boil their water for five minutes if they have it.
When the water comes back on elsewhere, it will likely need to be boiled as well.
Leak Seekers arrived about noon Wednesday and water department employees have been searching for the leak since 4:30 a.m., according to Hoover.
Leak Seekers was also used to find the leak that happened before Christmas.
Prior to Christmas, there was another large water leak, where 100,000 gallons of water was lost per day before the leak was finally found.
“I think this one’s bigger,” Hoover said.
He said Wednesday morning that there is no way to estimate when the water will be turned back on because they have not found the leak and it looks to be a large water main break. He said they think it might be coming from the plant.
When asked if the unusual weather patterns were having an effect on the pipes, he said that can sometimes cause problems. He also said it could be the old age of a pipe.
“There’s no way to know until they find it,” Hoover said of the pipe that is the source of the water main leak.
He said four workers from the water department have been out searching – looking and listening – for the leak and had no luck as of late Wednesday afternoon.
Water department employees also checked a main water line going into the reservoir and found no leaks, water department employee Jason Hartman said.
“It’s just a matter of searching until we find it,” Hoover said.
“We’re really hoping that it’s as quick as possible,” Hoover said about the leak being found and water being restored to Lisbon residents.
He said the water outages are not contained to a specific local area so that is making it even harder to detect the leak.
Most of the county offices closed including the courthouses. Dunkin Donuts has water, Washington Street doesn’t have water, and parts of Spruce Street and North Beaver Street do not have water.
An employee at the Lisbon Water Department said that about half the town has water with low pressure.
ehouk@mojonews.com
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