Pipe repair will affect 900 city water customers Saturday
By Lightning Reports, Published: February 28, 2025
A planned maintenance job to repair a large water transmission line will affect around 900 city water customers in neighborhoods on either side of N.C. 191 from North Rugby Road to Banner Farm Road in Mills River on Saturday, the city announced.
"We expect the repair and water outage to begin on Saturday morning and take approximately 14 hours to complete," the city said. "Once water service is restored, customers will be under a System Pressure Advisory until further notice."
The city's notification system uses the contact information in their water billing account to notify customers. The water department will send additional alerts if the repair takes longer than expected, as well as a message once the System Pressure Advisory has been rescinded.
"We appreciate our customers' cooperation and patience as we complete this complex repair," the city said.
One customer affected by the planned outage says the city's change in the wording of its alert from a boil water advisory to a system pressure advisory is misleading because it fails to explicitly warn of contamination.
"We have 900 people and businesses that will be affected by the planned water line work starting tomorrow," said Kim Hetzler, who lives in the affected area. "I hope the city council will decide to inform the public that there is an actual boil water advisory starting tomorrow and not classify it as 'a system pressure alert.'”
City Manager John Connet said the two advisories "basically mean the same thing."
The state Department of Environmental Quality "changed the nomenclature from boil water advisory to system pressure advisory so we're following DEQ's guidance," he said.
A system pressure alert "doesn't always mean the water's contaminated," he said, although he added that boiling water is recommended when the city issues that warning. If it was certain that drinking water supply to homes was contaminated, the city would make that clear in a separate alert. "We're not trying to hide anything," he said.
City Manager
is a public notification informing water customers to boil their tap water before using it for drinking purposes. Advisories are issued in response to an event that could allow contaminants to enter the water distribution system. Events like scheduled water line maintenance, water main breaks, loss of system pressure,
We issue a System Pressure Advisory when water contamination is possible. In an advisory, we recommend that affected customers boil water before consumption or use bottled water.
