About 40,000 households in southern Prince George’s County, Maryland, are being asked to conserve water for “essential” use only.
Lyn Riggins, with the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, told WTOP the affected communities include Clinton, Rosaryville, Marlton, Brandywine, Accokeek and portions of Fort Washington.
“We will be doing some emergency work starting late Wednesday night into Thursday,” Riggins said.
The work will take a 36-inch main out of service, and in order to maintain enough water pressure for public safety, such as the fire service, Riggins said about 40,000 households are being asked to only use water for essentials, beginning Wednesday night.
While the repairs to an aging water main take place, Riggins said residents are being asked to:
• Do laundry or run dishwashers before the work begins Wednesday night at 8 p.m.
• Avoid watering lawns or flower beds
• Don’t flush toilets after every use
• Turn off water when brushing teeth
“At this point we are expecting the essential-only water use to last only about three days,” Riggins said.
But she added that’s the ideal completion time. Weather or other unexpected conditions could change that.
”If everyone in this area conserves, we expect we can get through this emergency” without interruptions to service, Riggins said.
The work is needed, said Riggins, because the WSSC’s fiber-optic monitoring system detected breaks within the steel wires that serve to reinforce the prestressed concrete cylinder pipes at the main, located underneath Dower House Road just south of Maryland Route 4.
“When there’s one or two breaks, that’s not a big deal, but many breaks? That means the pipe is losing its structural integrity,” Riggins said.
The request for affected residents to restrict their water use for essential purposes only is designed to keep enough water pressure in the system to avoid having to declare a boil-water advisory, according to Riggins.
If a boil-water advisory is declared, WSSC would sample water to ensure it’s safe to drink.
More information is on WSSC’s website, including an interactive map that shows what neighborhoods are affected.
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