We are having water problems this week in Greenbrier County

We are having water problems this week in Greenbrier County

Some residents in Greenbrier County, about 12,000, started the week without water. That includes my house.  You don't realize what a convenience our water source is .... until you DON'T have it!

A truck hauling diesel fuel wrecked on Route 92 on Friday night.  Diesel fuel from the truck spilled into Anthony Creek which runs into the Greenbrier River. Early estimates indicated more than 3,000 gallons of diesel fuel were dumped into the water.

Residents were instructed to conserve water over the weekend, and the Lewisburg Water Treatment Plant ran out of stored water on Sunday afternoon.  As a precaution, the intake along the Greenbrier River for the Lewisburg Water Treatment Plant – which also serves customers in Ronceverte, Frankford and Renick – was shut off to keep the diesel fuel from making it into the water supply.

Stored water was being used in the interim, but that supply was gone by Sunday afternoon when Lewisburg officials reported the treatment plant had still not resumed normal operations.  We have been without water since Sunday and hope it comes back on tomorrow.  I was hoping for a snow storm...so we could melt the snow to flush toilets.  Today, we have sunshine with the temps in the mid 20s.

Mayor Manchester says that "all the detailed water tests taken by EPA yesterday came back negative ("no detect") on measures of diesel fuel (hydrocarbon). The state Bureau for Public Health gave us the go-ahead to start up the water plant again, and this has been done.   The water may be back on today and there will be a boil water advisory in effect for all parts of the system. for 3 to 4 days. The advisory is a health department precaution simply because the system experienced low pressure; it has nothing to do with the diesel spill that never got in the pipes. It will take 5-7 days for the water tanks to be close to normal and have all areas back with normal water pressure."