Main break near water plant affects thousands in Cape; pipe repaired but boil advisory still in effect

A water main break near the Cape Rock Water Treatment Plant triggered a citywide boil water advisory Monday, Dec. 9, affecting thousands of people in Cape Girardeau.

A City of Cape Girardeau email states the water main break has been repaired, but the city remains under a boil water advisory until test results come back on or before 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 11.

According to the email, the boil water advisory was widened from its scope of 14,000 homes in the city to becoming a citywide advisory at around 8:33 a.m. Monday. Alliance Water Resources local manager Jonathan Ridings told the Southeast Missourian the widened range of the advisory was because of where the water main break occurred.

"It (the water main) is one of the main lines leaving the water plants, so it feeds most of the water in the system," Ridings said.

He said the advisory first was for 14,000 homes they were trying to contain and making sure they had reserves. Ridings said that when the break happened, Alliance "cut back" the high-service pumps that pump out to the city's distribution system.

He said they realized a break had occurred when the water flow had "jumped" from around 3,000 gallons to 7,000 gallons a minute.

"A couple hours later, looking into it, we decided to issue it for citywide, because it wasn't contained real fast, and the water in this pressure zone ends up feeding the rest of the pressure zones in the water system," Ridings said.

He said the cast iron pipe was put in place in 1931. Ridings said the exact cause of the break couldn't be determined, there were several small earthquakes Monday morning in Southern Missouri.

He described a section being "blown out" of the pipe when it broke. Ridings said while temperature changes can affect pipes, the pipe was about 6 feet in the ground and would probably be beyond any frost in the area.

Ridings said he believes there had been about three water main breaks last week. He said he didn't know how much exactly it would cost to fix this main, but "it's going to be a lot".

"I have a lot of personnel out here working on it. The pipe itself, being a 14-inch, that's expensive pipe. We have two wraps on them. Those wraps are expensive," Ridings said.

Ridings said one thing the public should know is that breaks such as the ones seen near the plant are going to "happen again" until the city's infrastructure can be updated and upgraded. He said it will become "more routine" and "more expensive" as time moves on.

Mayor Stacy Kinder thanked the city's staff for repairing the main break in a statement sent out Monday.

“We know how disruptive these boil advisories can be for everyone at home, and also for our local businesses, schools, and medical facilities,” Mayor Stacy Kinder states in the email. “We are very grateful for our outstanding team of staff and partners for repairing the main so quickly and working with our customers.”

The email states customers' water pressure should now be stable, but some customers could experience "reddish brown" or "milky white" water because of water changing directions or changes in pressure. The announcement states that running water for a "few extra minutes" should resolve the problems.