Avion lifts boil-water notice after sample passes test

(Update: Avion lifts boil-water notice after sample clears test)

Avion Water Co. on Thursday morning lifted the boil-water notice issued a day earlier for about 10,000 customers on the north and east side of Bend after a large water line broke the previous night.

The company said it was informed early Thursday that a water sample taken Wednesday morning had passed as clean and the state lifted the boil-water notice.

“As a precaution, please flush your pipes to clear any potential contaminants,” the company said in a Facebook post. “For most service lines, 10-15 minutes is sufficient. Thank you for your patience.”

The line break was reported around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday on Knott Road, just east of 15th Street, company officials said in a notice posted to their Website.

An 18-inch line split, putting out 4,000 gallons of water a minute across a field.

“We think the cause of it was a rock against the pipe,” said Jason Wick, Avion’s president. “Large pipes have vibration from water traveling through them, and traffic. And over time it wears a hole. And when it gets close to the edge, it splits.”

The crew had the line fixed overnight and was flushing it out, with everyone reported back in service by 8 a.m., according to a posting on Avion’s Website.

However, “due to a reduction in pressure in the main line,” the utility issued a boil-water notice for the area east of 15th Street and Knott Road in Bend, though Avion said it did not include any outlying areas served by Avion Water.

The drinking water warning said the loss of water pressure means “potentially harmful bacterial could be present” in the water supply, and said customers should not drink the water without boiling it first.