Watson Bayou Work Causes Trouble
Sep. 22–PANAMA CITY — Six Bay County schools were forced to use bottled water Wednesday after a city pipe broke during dredging of Watson Bayou.
Officials issued a precautionary boil water notice Tuesday evening due to damage to a 12-inch water line that crosses Watson Bayou in the area of Seventh Street, Panama City Utilities Director Ron Morgan said.
A privately owned company doing dredging on behalf of the city hit the line, he said.
Water service was affected south of 15th Street, Morgan said, between Harrison and Everett avenues.
“The whole southeast side of town,” Morgan said. ” Hopefully now that it’s isolated, the pressure will come back up somewhat.”
The boil water notice remains in effect, he said, and a decision about whether to rescind it will be made this evening or Friday morning.
Mike Jones, safety manager for Bay County schools, said word of the water break — at least the third so far this year — meant immediately bagging all the water fountains and faucets at area schools and bringing in bottled water for drinking.
About 8,200 bottles were delivered to the affected schools Wednesday morning, and there are plans to drop off more later this week.
Also, jugs of water were taken to each cafeteria so utensils could be washed. Several schools got portable toilets because water pressure was too low to flush.
“Everybody was fine,” Jones said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, four schools — Patterson Elementary, Millville Elementary, Rosenwald Middle and A.D. Harris High — had flushing capabilities. Bay High School and Cherry Street Elementary School did not, Jones said, but: “Hopefully they’ll get the water back on tonight.”
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