Boil water advisory expected to be lifted in Moose Jaw by the weekend

The city is attributing aging infrastructure to 12 water main breaks in Moose Jaw, Sask. this week.

The breaks put seven areas of the city under boil water advisories, and despite repairs being completed on most of the breaks, the advisories are expected to last for a few more days.

READ MORE: More boil water advisories issued for Moose Jaw

The City of Moose Jaw’s municipal operations manager, Darrin Stephanson, said that they’re currently waiting on lab results for water safety.

“We do need two at least a minimum of two days to get a couple samples back to be sure they’re clear of bacteriological issues,” he explained.

“So that could extend if positive tests come back, but generally we don’t see that in these instances.”

Stephanson added that if everything goes well, the boil water advisory should be lifted by the weekend.

As for a cause, Stephanson said that an issue with a core water line set off a series of events that led to the breaks.

“It created a drop in pressure across the system, and as additional pumps kicked on to provide that pressure, we did have a spike and that is what caused breaks in some of the weak infrastructure that’s there,” Stephanson said.

The water mains that broke are estimated be between 80-110 years old. All of the breaks took place in parts of the city where cast iron water mains are being replaced.