Five TUSD schools will reopen Thursday after water service was restored Wednesday afternoon to the schools and to a majority of the homes affected by a water main break Tuesday.ย
About 90% of the 5,000 homes affected by the outage had water service by 5 p.m. Wednesday, with the remaining homes expected to have service by Wednesday evening, said Fernando Molina, Tucson Water spokesman. Molina said the remaining homes were in higher altitude, and Tucson Water was using booster pumps to get water to the right elevation in order to restore service.ย
Five schools in the Tucson Unified School District canceled classes for Tuesday and Wednesday due to the water outage, according to district spokeswoman Karla Escamilla. The schoolsย โย Johnson, Vesey, Banks and Warren elementary schools and Valencia Middle Schoolย โ will be open Thursday.ย ย
The outage began at about 7 p.m. Monday near the intersection of South Sheridan Avenue and West Irvington Road, west of South Kinney Road, according to Tucson Water officials. The area impacted stretches from Tucson Estates, which borders Tucson Mountain Park, to south of West Valencia Road.ย
Tucson Water officials will continue to distribute bottled water at the schools for students and staff to drink. Water fountains at the school will be turned off and students, faculty and staff are encouraged to use hand sanitizer, which will be available in every classroom, restroom, the cafeteria and the nurse's office, according to the school district. The water is safe for hand washing, Molina said.
Due to the size of the affected area, officials urged residents in that zone to boil water for the next 48 hours before consuming it as a precaution.ย Initial tests have shown the restored water is not contaminated, Molina said.ย
Tucson Water employees spent Tuesday bringing water from clean sources to the affected area and redirecting the water so it does not go into broken pipes, Molina said. When a water line breaks, there is a possibility that dirt and debris can get into the pipe.
The broken pipes have been fixed, but Tucson Water is waiting for Pima County officials to fix some of the county structure that was damages, Molina said. Tucson Water officials will then fill the fixed pipes with water and disinfect them with chlorine. Before the pipes are put back in service, the water going through those pipes will be tested to ensure it's bacteria-free which could take between two days and a week, Molina said.ย
Tucson Water set up two distribution sites Tuesday where they supplied hundreds of residents with cases of water, as well as installed portable toilets and hand-washing stations. Officials will continue to supply water to residents at the southwest corner of West Ajo Way and South Kinney Road, and at 5900 W. Western Way Circle until service is restored.
