Warm Springs water line break prompts boil-water notice

A water main broke on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation on Sunday morning, cutting service to several areas and prompting a boil-water notice Monday evening for all homes and businesses on the Agency Water System.

The water system lost pressure due to the main line break near the Shitike River crossing, the tribes said in their announcement. That increases the chance that untreated water and harmful microbes can enter the system.

The tribes’ public utilities water crew plans to make repairs on the 14-inch main line starting Tuesday morning. Officials said it’s expected the repairs should be finished within 24 hours, but it will take another five or six hours to recharge the system.

Based on the tribal sanitarian’s recommendations, residents will need to boil water indefinitely or until the problem is fixed.

Several areas of the community were without water service Sunday, and other areas were on reserve water and urged to make it last, KWSO reported in updates on its Facebook page.

Bottled water was made available and portable toilets were put in place.