By T. Scott Batright
GRAMBLING — Water service for all of the city of Grambling will be shut off at 9 a.m. Monday to repair a large leak.
The reason for shutting off all city water lines is to repair a broken two-inch water line on the eastern corner of the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Main Street, across the street from Gallot’s Barber Shop.
A notification sent out from the city to residents says the water could be cut off from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., but Grambling Mayor Alvin Bradley said he hopes that service will be restored before that.
“We don’t like inconveniencing anyone, but for safety reasons because of the high water pressure — we don’t want anyone working on the line to be injured — doing it that way would be the best way to do it.
“Now, there is some hope a fix will only take three or hours, but we won’t know for sure until the workers get down to trying to make the fix and see how bad it is. It’s been leaking for weeks now and if you look, you can see the water running at a good rate, so it’s a fix that has to be made.”
After water service is restored, there will be a mandatory boil order in place for at least a couple of days.
That boil order is necessary because pressure allows treated water running through a line, which includes decontaminants such as chlorine, to flow through the pipes without any outside contamination seeping in along the way.
When water lines are shut off or even when pressure drops below acceptable levels, old underground pipes could have cracks and holes that allow groundwater to seep into the water system. Some of that groundwater can carry harmful bacteria, bacteria that can only be eliminated by boiling the water.
“The boil order usually takes two or three days to be lifted because samples have to be taken throughout the system and then sent off to be tested to make sure there is no contamination,” Bradley said. “We have to send the samples off to be tested and it usually takes a couple of days to get the results back.
“As soon as we know the water is not contaminated and safe, the boil order will be lifted.”
