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Island Chain Could Be Without Water By Today

Posted on: Friday, 19 May 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Jennifer Babson, The Miami Herald

May 19--KEY WEST -- Two main pipe breaks in the Upper Keys Thursday may jeopardize the island chain's water supply and officials are warning residents they may run out early today.

"We might have water in Key West, but we might not be able to get it to Sugarloaf Key," warned Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority spokeswoman Kathryn Ovide. "Unless people help us by major conservation, the system is at risk of reaching minimal capacity."

Late Thursday, Ovide and county officials said they believed Marathon -- which was hosting powerboat races that had drawn numerous visitors -- could run out of water by early today.

"We are really worried about Marathon," Ovide said. "What's going to happen at a certain level is when the storage tank reaches a certain level, it's going to shut off."

If that happens, Ovide said, "We would go into a post-hurricane emergency recovery."

That would mean the authority could deliver water that remained in the tanks or residents could bring containers to special places to collect water, she said.

Ovide had another piece of advice for locals as darkness fell:

"Go buy water. It wouldn't be a bad idea."

The pipes broke about 5 p.m. at Mile Markers 94 and 97 in Tavernier, according to emergency officials, who quickly issued a precautionary alert urging residents between Mile Markers 6 and 97 to boil tap water before drinking it.

The cause of the breaks was unknown.

For about an hour and 45 minutes after the breaks, most Keys residents were without water because it stopped flowing down the line, Ovide said. Water was restored to all of Monroe County by 7 p.m.

"This is a pretty major break. We anticipate it could be midmorning on Friday before we get the system pressurized," Ovide said.

Crews were working into the night to repair the main line that flows from Florida City along U.S. 1 into the island chain.

Nearly all of the potable water consumed in the Keys is treated at that Florida City facility.

Ovide said the water authority, which usually has about 33 million gallons in storage for such emergencies, was down to less than half of that because part of the storage system was being purged for annual maintenance.

The problem was exacerbated because officials had overestimated the amount of water stored in emergency tanks across the Keys.

Daily water consumption in the Keys is about 14 million gallons this time of year, according to Ovide, who urged people to conserve so service is not compromised.

"We can do this," she said. "If we work together like we do after a hurricane, we'll make it."

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Miami Herald

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Source: The Miami Herald

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