Hillsborough lifted boil water advisory Thursday after water line break

The town of Hillsborough lifted a boil water advisory Thursday after tests came back showing that none of the water along and north of U.S. 70 had been contaminated after a water line broke Wednesday.

This was the second water advisory sent out in Orange County recently.

Kenny Keel, the town engineer and utilities director, said the test results came back around 3 p.m. Thursday, allowing the town the usual 24 hours it takes to run bacteriological tests to ensure water is safe to drink.

The water line break occurred at noon Wednesday when a private contractor pulled a 1-inch service cord connecting the town’s water main to New Hope Church at the intersection of U.S. 70 and Orange High School Road. Unable to completely turn off the water, crews repaired the break while it was under pressure. The line was repaired at 3:10 p.m. Wednesday.

Keel said the water service line couldn’t be detected electronically, so it was pulled accidentally.

“Our staff marked where we thought the line was, but it’s a plastic service line and we don’t really have anything that can locate that electronically,” he said. “So an assumption was made where the line actually crossed the road and went over, and for whatever reason when it was installed many years ago, it didn’t go straight, it curved a little bit and was in a slightly different location than we had marked it.”

Following the line break, homes and properties around U.S. 70 may have experienced water outages or low water pressure.

A press release said areas in the impacted water system included Orange High School Road, North and South English Hill lanes, U.S. 70 between Scotswood Boulevard and Orange High School Road, Ann Road, Gwen Road and Joyce Road.

Periods in which there is low pressure in the water distribution system increase the chances of bacteriological contamination. As a precaution, the town advised affected customers to use bottled water or to boil all water intended for human consumption.

Two public schools were impacted by the water line break — Orange High School and C.W. Stanford Middle School.

Hillsborough Christian Academy was also affected. Principal Bryan K. Turner said they did not have to boil any water.

“Instead of boiling water, which would be difficult for a school, we ended up purchasing gallons upon gallons of water,” Turner said. “If I’m right, I think we had about 26 gallons of water the last few days that we’ve gone through.”

While Turner commended Orange County Health Services for the role it played in reaching out to schools, he said the response from the town could have been quicker.

“As far as how it was handled through the government, I think there could have been a faster response and definitely an opportunity to connect more with the educational bodies around here,” Turner said. “The response that we received was Stanford and Orange High — both were under the boil advisory. The initial email that went out went out just to those families. We, unfortunately, are a private Christian school and so we did not receive the advisory in a timely manner, I don’t think.”

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