By Louie Rosella, THE MISSISSAUGA NEWS
Feb 8, 2007
A water main break in southeast Mississauga this morning left close to 600 residents, most of whom were seniors, without water.
Region of Peel crews were working feverishly last night to fix the break and hoped to have water restored by late evening or early today.
But, Ric Robertshaw, Director of Operations and Maintenance for the Region of Peel, said if it couldn't be fixed soon, the Region will look at getting another water line into the building.
Meanwhile, the Region and the City of Mississauga is providing bottled water to the more than 500 tenants living at the Dixie and Lakeshore Rds.-area apartments affected by the break. Residents living in 12 homes on Dixie Rd., are also without water, Robertshaw said.
The water main, a cast-iron pipe that is 18 inches in diameter and around 500 metres long which runs along Dixie Rd., from the QEW to Lakeshore Rd., broke just after 3 a.m.
Crews had to turn off the water valves to fix the break.
The property manager of the apartments, Anna Monti, said most of the tenants are elderly.
"We have no water, and the break flooded our entrance way. Everything was iced over," she said. "The residents weren't allowed in or out of the building for several hours, and that posed some problems."
Robertshaw said regional crews and Peel Regional Police had to shut down Dixie Rd. for a few hours because "there was a considerable amount of water that found its way onto the ground and froze over, so city and regional crews were down there sanding and salting and removing ice off of the road."
Monti said evacuation efforts had to be coordinated for some residents who were ill, including one man who needed dialysis.
"Our staff is working with each resident depending on their concern," she said.
Peel Paramedics were on standby in the area for most of the day yesterday.
Several seniors in the apartments expressed their frustration at what was happening.
"Even with the bottled water, we keep running out. You don't realize how bad you need it until it's gone," said 71-year-old tenant Doris Frendo. "And how are we supposed to cook? It's not like we can ask for 20 bottles at a time."
Robertshaw said he understands the break is an inconvenience, but crews are working hard to repair the problem.
"We've had crews down there. They've exposed the main. There's a lot of water that's in the trench and they have to get the water out of there so that they can get the pipe completely exposed to see exactly what we're dealing with," he said yesterday afternoon. "We need to turn off the main on the street in order for us to get to that pipe, drain that pipe and then basically repair that break. Once that's been done and it's been properly disinfected, we'll be putting the main back in service and everyone will be completely connected."
Robertshaw said the broken pipe is about 50 years old and "it doesn't have history of water main breaks and it's been reliable over the years."
"Infrastructure is ageing, no question. This is part of the water main system," he said. "With respect to the Region of Peel and its infrastructure, it's by and large not as old on average, as most of the other municipalities."
Dixie Mall and other homes in the area were fine because they are getting water from other mains, he said.
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