East Providence Council formally backs BCWA back-up water connection proposal

Will provide both systems with sufficient back-up water source

By Mike Rego
Posted 5/8/19

EAST PROVIDENCE — By a unanimous 5-0 count, the council at its Tuesday, May 7, meeting voted to approve a proposal presented to the city by the Bristol County Water Authority for the construction …

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East Providence Council formally backs BCWA back-up water connection proposal

Will provide both systems with sufficient back-up water source

Posted

EAST PROVIDENCE — By a unanimous 5-0 count, the council at its Tuesday, May 7, meeting voted to approve a proposal presented to the city by the Bristol County Water Authority for the construction of a new, larger back-up connection between the systems.

At a workshop and a previous council forum both held in April, the BCWA offered to fully fund the installation of a 24-inch pipe beginning where the BCWA main pipe reaches land across Narragansett Bay and the Providence River near the Silver Spring Golf Course off Pawtucket Avenue. The connection, using the second of two proposed routing options, would eventually reach East Providence’s water hub located at the tower facility in Kent Heights off Dover Avenue.

The new pipe project comes with an estimated cost of $4.75 million and would replace an existing 16-inch connection, which is insufficient to support either system. BCWA would pay for the bulk of the project. The only initial cost to East Providence would come in the form of police details during construction.

The proposal took on immediacy since the topic was broached last month after the BCWA’s 32-inch main line from the Scituate Reservoir sprung a leak at the Port of Providence. Since, it has had to tap into East Providence’s system to sustain operations.

Earlier this week, contractors working at the port uncovered the top of the pipe suspected of leaking nearly 288,000 gallons of BCWA water per day, but had not yet located its exact source.

BCWA officials ordered the pipeline closed last Thursday, May 2, shutting off Bristol County’s sole permanent source of water until the leak is found and fixed. In the meantime, water customers in Barrington, Warren and Bristol are receiving water via the emergency connection with East Providence’s BCWA Exectutive Director Pam Marchand said that connection is working as it should.

At the leak site, just over the Cross Bay Pipeline's emergence onto land in Providence, pinpointing the leak has been slow-going, Ms. Marchand said. Digging at the site has been hampered by a large amount of groundwater, and crews dug about 20 yards along the pipeline's length at the time without luck. She said crews will continue moving along and digging, backfilling as they go, until the leak is found. Only then can officials determine the nature of the breach and how to repair it.

Though there is no timeline to complete the work, Ms. Marchand estimated last week that repairs could take one to two months. During that time, BCWA officials have put a mandatory ban on outdoor and unnecessary water use, effective until further notice. In any, city officials said residents in Riverside may be affected by a drop in water pressure while the system is shared.

“I don’t want to see residents in East Providence turn the faucet on someday and have no water, which is almost happening in Bristol, Barrington and Warren,” At-Large Councilman Bob Rodericks said while supporting the motion to approve the BCWA proposal. “And they have a newer pipeline that is leaking. Their’s was built in 1998 and our’s in 1967. So we’re on borrowed time.”

The aforementioned 52-year-old East Providence main connection from Scituate has long been a worry for city officials not only because of its age but also presumed structural defects considering the materials of which it was made at the time.

“It’s definitely a critical project that needs to get done sooner rather than later,” Public Works Director Steve Coutu said Tuesday night. “And obviously with the situation facing Bristol Country right now, it’s even more dire.”

The agreed upon routing of the new pipe project, referred to Tuesday as "alternative two," will see it cross Pawtucket Avenue at Silver Spring Golf Course then behind the Village Green apartment complex and St. Mary Academy-Bay View, onto Elder Avenue through property owned by Citizens Bank before it reaches Wampanoag Trail and runs up Dover ending at the tower site. It was deemed the more convenient, least disruptive route for traffic and to the already inadequate condition of the Pawtucket Avenue tarmac. Site work would begin in the fall with a construction start date of spring 2020.

“I say this realizing alternative two is going to tear up my back yard. Not literally, but right up Dover Ave., which is the heart of Ward 3. I think it’s very important that we make tough decisions when they have to be made,” said Ward 3 Councilor Nate Cahoon. “I know I’m going to get calls. I know there’s going to be unhappy residents right up the street from me, right around the corner. But the option to me of tearing up Pawtucket Ave., exacerbating traffic for the entire city is just not a choice.”

— with contributions from Ted Hayes

2024 by East Bay Media Group

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A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.