Boil water advisory lifted for Pittsburgh neighborhoods
After several days of a boil water advisory in East End Pittsburgh neighborhoods, the Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority on Wednesday lifted the advisory for several thousands of households across about a dozen neighborhoods.
The announcement comes a day after some residents in four neighborhoods had their advisories lifted.
There were about 6,117 households across several affected areas in East Liberty, Highland Park, Garfield, Bloomfield, Friendship, Homewood, Shadyside, Point Breeze, Oakland, and Stanton Heights. PWSA asked residents and customers to boil their tap water in these areas, and the agency installed several water buffaloes across the neighborhoods to provide free, safe drinking water.
These affected areas and households are now cleared from the precautionary water advisory.
“Customers are no longer advised to boil tap water before consumption,” said PWSA in a press release.
PWSA said it completed two consecutive rounds of water quality testing that did not show any evidence of microbial contamination, and that tap water in these areas is safe to drink. The whole testing process takes more than 48 hours.
The advisory was first given on Sunday after an early morning power outage impacted a pump station that caused low water pressure in about a dozen different areas across the city’s East End.
Water pressure was restored three hours after the power outage, but PWSA issued the boil advisory out of an abundance of caution since contaminants can enter the drinking water when water pressure is low.
The advisory was lifted in two parts because the agency was able to collect water samples in some neighborhoods on Sunday, but couldn’t collect samples from the remaining affected areas until Monday, according to PWSA.
The agency recommends that customers who are using their water for the first time since Sunday run their taps for at least one minute before using it for cooking or drinking, as this helps remove stagnant water from plumbing and brings in fresh water from water mains.
More information can be found at PWSA’s website.
Ryan Deto is a TribLive reporter covering politics, Pittsburgh and Allegheny County news. A native of California’s Bay Area, he joined the Trib in 2022 after spending more than six years covering Pittsburgh at the Pittsburgh City Paper, including serving as managing editor. He can be reached at rdeto@triblive.com.
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