BROCTON - The Boil Water Alert issued for Portland's Water District 2 was officially lifted as of 11 a.m. Friday, according to Portland Town Supervisor Dan Schrantz.
"The second water sample has passed all tests and customers can return to normal use of their water," Schrantz stated Friday.
"Our long-term solution to the problem of water losing chlorination as it travels through the pipe will be for us to meet with the County Health Department, the City of Dunkirk, Town of Pomfret and West Town of Dunkirk officials to discuss rectifying this problem. Because we purchase the water from the city, where the water is being produced, it has a very long draw to the tower through older lines to reach all of the users of the water. We need to look at placing a chlorination station somewhere in between and figure out how it will be operated," he said.
Loss of chlorination can happen especially with older lines carrying water, Schrantz explained, and especially hot weather conditions which have been experienced recently can also affect the levels.
"It's difficult to add additional chlorine at Dunkirk where the water is made because it could cause too high of a level at another end of the pipe. Chlorine needs to be injected somewhere in between to prevent this from happening again," Schrantz said.
Because the results were announced late Friday, it posed a particular issue with getting the samples to a lab to read immediately according to Schrantz.
"Unfortunately there wasn't much that could be done at that time to get the order lifted any sooner, because the labs were closed for the weekend."
Notification was given to the public by WDOE and the OBSERVER. Anyone with further issues can still contact the Portland Town offices at 792-9614.
