Cornelia has lifted the boil water advisory for customers along Chase Road. Customers in that area have been boiling their drinking and cooking water since Tuesday, November 18, ever since a 10-inch water main ruptured.
Cornelia Utilities Director Keith Ethridge says lab tests run on water in the ruptured line came back today and showed no signs of contamination. The water is safe to drink and cook with straight from the tap.
Ethridge says he appreciates customers being patient.
The line that ruptured is located in a remote area off of Chase Road in Cornelia. Ethridge says several factors appear to have contributed to Tuesday’s water main break. He says the age of the line combined with Tuesday’s cold temperatures and tree roots pushing on the line may have weakened it. “There was a lot of rock underneath the tree that acted as a fulcrum and the wind blowing that tree around may have caused it to rupture,” Ethridge says.
Utility crews worked throughout the afternoon Tuesday to repair it. Ethridge says water service was restored by 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Crews have been working on upgrades to Cornelia’s water system for some time. Ethridge says that work continues and will, hopefully, help prevent a similar line break in the future. “We’ve got a lot of old infrastructure and this line is one of the oldest in the city. So what we’re doing in town is providing redundancy so that sometime in the future we can either take that line out of service or replace it.”
