To boil or not to boil; how does the city decide to issue a boil order when there is a leak?

Sometimes, when there is a water leak, residents are told to boil their water; other times they aren’t.

This raised some questions recently as Jasper experienced several water line breaks around the Fourth of July holiday.

Tim Doersam, Jasper’s Gas & Water Manager, took some time to explain the reasoning behind boil orders being issued for some water line breaks and not others.

Doersam said that when a break occurs, usually it is simply a hole in the pipe. In those cases, the water department will turn down the pressure to the affected area utilizing the valve close to the hole and then repair it under pressure with a clamp. “It’s kind of like a band-aid, we wrap a clamp around the pipe, tighten it up and you are good to go,” he said.

By repairing it under pressure — water spraying out of the hole in the pipe — there is a lower likelihood of contaminants like dirt getting into the pipe.

Recently on 15th Street, the pipe had six holes in about 30 feet of pipe. The department attempted to clamp them but when it worsened, they decided to replace the section of pipe. “We decided to cut it out,” Doersam said.

When crews remove a section of pipe for replacement, there is a much greater likelihood that dirt and other contaminants will be introduced to the water system. Also, once the water department shuts down water to through a pipeline, it is required by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to declare a boil order for the homes fed from the line. “We are making sure that the water is safe for the people affected,” Doersam said.

Once a boil order is declared, the water department will conduct at least two tests on the water. One 24 hours after the declaration and a second 24 hours later. If the water passes the both tests, then the boil order will be lifted. If it doesn’t pass, they must return and do it two more consecutive times over 24 hour time periods.

Sometimes boil orders don’t make it into the local media. For example, another pipe cracked near 17th and Reservoir streets around the same time and in this case, because of the small area affected and the low number of houses, the department went door to door to notify the residents of the boil order.

In regards to the recent string of water line breaks, Doersam said he wasn’t sure what was causing them but he considered several factors like the age of the lines (at least 60 years), pressure from the water tower as well as the flooding that occurred earlier this year.