Water main break disrupts service to more than million customers The Associated Press 5/1/01 10:29 AM

WESTFIELD, N.J. (AP) -- A break in a 60-inch water main disrupted service to more than 1 million customers in central New Jersey, closing schools Tuesday in parts of two counties.

Crews isolated the break, rerouted service and started restoring pressure Tuesday, but residents were told to boil water as a precaution against contamination.

The break occurred late Monday on a major transmission line at a water treatment plant run by Elizabethtown Water Co. The problem also affected customers of Edison and Liberty water companies.

Customers in Middlesex, Somerset and Union counties were directly affected.

Schools in parts of Somerset and Middlesex counties delayed opening or closed for the day. Middlesex officials activated their Emergency Operations Center to ensure adequate fire protection capacity, and tanker trucks were placed on standby.

Somerset County officials expected that by noon there would be adequate but not ideal fire hydrant pressure and that home faucets would have some water, said Leroy Gunzelman, director of county emergency management.

Elizabethtown Water serves 54 municipalities in Burlington, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Morris, Ocean, Somerset and Union counties.

http://www.nj.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?a0535_BC_WaterMainBreak&&news&newsflash-national

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 01, 2001