A boil water advisory is in effect for thousands of North East residents until further notice.
Residents of North East Borough and Township are being ordered to boil their water after the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) discovered water quality could be compromised.
After a scheduled filter plant inspection, DEP noted tears and standing water on the floating cover at Fairchild Reservoir.
Water within the borough and township now has an increased chance of containing "disease-causing organisms."
Boil water advisory issued for North East
Erie County Executive Brenton Davis said this is something that could have been completely avoidable.
"Here's yet another crisis in our community due to failing infrastructure, had we have been using our casino gaming revenue appropriately for the last 15 years or so," said Davis. "They're looking at potentially a $500,000 bill to get themselves out of this."
Water that's not boiled for at least one minute can cause symptoms of diarrhea, nausea, cramps and associated headaches.
Not only does this advisory cause major inconvenience to North East residents but it also affects businesses economically.
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"You have places like Welches, you have places like Winland, you have places like Bayvalley. These are three large food manufacturers that are now shut down. That's folks without a paycheck, that's businesses that cannot operate, disruption in the supply line," Davis added.
According to Davis, progress on a temporary fix will begin on Monday.
"They have to bring in a special dive team to make the repairs to the tarp," said Davis. "This is a bandage fix to just simply get it back to where they can test the water again, get folks where they can drink it but there's nothing to say a week, a month, two months from now they're back in the same boat with another tear."
The borough website states "water has been and is being tested daily, and to date, there have been no exceedances of numerical limits."
It goes on to say that customers will be notified when the advisory has been lifted.
We have reached out to borough manager Patrick Gehrlein and have not yet received a response.
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