Nahant issues boil-water order following main break; service shut off for 2 hours

NAHANT – Town officials blamed a burst water-main pipe for interrupting water service Thursday morning for about two hours and prompting officials to issue a 24-hour boil-water order.”All town agencies – the Fire Department, Police Department, Public Works – all coordinated together,” said Police Lt. Thomas Hutton. “There was nothing out of the ordinary, no fires, no medical-aid calls, we checked on the elderly, and in my opinion, considering the magnitude of the break, I’d say Nahant did a pretty good job.”Public Works Working Superintendent Timothy Lowe said that a break occurred in one of the town’s two main water pipes at approximately 5:30 a.m., in front of the Coast Guard Station at the intersection of Castle and Nahant roads.Lowe said that water service was shut off for about two hours as workers isolated the break and transferred the water to the other main. Once the water flow was restored, Town Administrator Mark Cullinan issued a boil-water order for the next 24 hours.”We just did it as a precautionary thing,” Cullinan said, explaining that water samples indicated a normal – in fact, on the high range of normal – level of chlorine in the water. “I’m not expecting any problem?with the chlorine (levels) it’s very unlikely that you’ll have bacteria, but whenever there’s a big break, it’s good to be cautious.”In fact, the most dramatic result of the incident was a car that fell into a sinkhole caused by the flooding. Otherwise residents and businesses took the event in stride – although there was a noticeable increase in unshaven faces on many of the local men.Inder Pal, the owner of the Richland Convenience Store, used Poland Spring water to start the morning coffee when he opened the store at 6 a.m.”Customers need coffee,” Pal said.He said he was surprised that there was no running water, since he had taken a shower only an hour earlier. He said that he did have to limit his customers to buying only two gallons of water apiece, however.Residents Philip and Trudy Joyce said that they woke up to find rusty and then very pale water coming from their faucets.But they said that they were not concerned unless they wouldn’t be able to cook for the Village Church’s Maundy Thursday Pot-Luck Supper. If so, that would be the second meal they would have to rearrange for the day – they had been planning to eat lunch at the Council on Aging, but Town Hall employee Kathleen Costin said that the group took a “mystery trip” to a restaurant rather than having lunch at the Senior Center.The Tides restaurant had its typically bustling lunch.”We have bottled water, bottled soda and a plumbing inspector said that all the hand sinks are fine,” said waiter Mike Quave as he delivered food to diners. “It’s nothing to slow us down at all.”With five out of six employees from public works (one was on vacation) and two shifts of police employees working on the project, the repairs weren’t slowed down either. The cracked 15-foot section of pipe was replaced by 2 p.m. and cleanup began an hour later, Lowe said.He attributed the break to normal wear-and-tear, noting that the pipe was approximately 40 years old. He said that it was the first break on that particular water main that he could recall in 20 years in the department, but he didn’t think that residents would notice any change in their water.”I don’t think anybody will be seeing any indication of it, the main (disruptive) thing was this morning,” Lowe said. “It was a busy day, though.”