Update 1/21/18 3:06 p.m.: PWSA has lifted the flush and boil advisory.
Roughly 900 Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority customers in Lawrenceville and Bloomfield are under a flush and boil advisory.
The advisory is precautionary after a 6-inch water main broke along Penn Avenue between 30th and 45th streets, officials said in a release.
PWSA said they had to drain a 20-inch main as a result of the break, and that the decrease in pressure could have introduced contaminants into the water.
This is the first flush and boil advisory so far this year, but three major advisories last year affected hundreds of thousands of customers in the city’s East End and northern neighborhoods.
In December, PWSA interim executive director Bob Weimar said it was unacceptable for customers to have undergone three precautionary flush and boil advisories in such a short timeframe.
“But we’ve taken in each case an abundance of caution to minimize the potential for any water quality problems that would affect the public,” he said at the time. “We think that a flush and boil order is sort of a minimal impact to make sure that we preserve the health and welfare of our customers.”
It’s unclear how long the current flush and boil advisory will remain in effect.A map of the affected areas can be found online.
