CAROLINE COUNTY, Va. — As millions of Americans prepared for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, some residents in Caroline County experienced yet another disruption with their water services — mounting up costs amid a busy holiday season.
A boil water advisory was issued for Heritage side of the Lake Land’Or Community following a water main line break, the latest of multiple incidents involving discolored, brown water that CBS 6 reported on.
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Many Lake Land’Or residents have complained about what they called poor services and high price hikes from Aqua Virginia, the private utility company serving their neighborhood — though this time the issue was caused by an outside contractor not related to Aqua Virginia.
The contractor was Comcast, according to an Aqua Virginia spokesperson, who said Comcast workers hit a water main line on Tuesday while appearing to be installing a communications line like phone, cable or internet.
Comcast requested Aqua Virginia locate the line for them, according to Aqua Virginia’s spokesperson. They provided an approximate location and depth of the line, but it appears Comcast failed to locate it before they began drilling into the ground.
Aqua Virginia repaired the line around 4 p.m. that afternoon. The event impacted approximately 35 customers.
But then Comcast hit the water line again on Wednesday morning, according to Aqua Virginia’s spokesperson.
The spokesperson said Aqua Virginia’s operations team responded immediately and isolated the break, which is now impacting approximately 30 customers. They are working to restore pressure to the rest of the Lake Land’Or system.
Due to loss of pressure in the system, Aqua Virginia issued a precautionary boil water advisory.
Aqua Virginia received multiple calls Wednesday regarding discolored water associated with the water line break, their spokesperson stated. They flushed the water system — as they have in the past — in the area where the repair was made, and are currently investigating other calls as they come in.
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The water line break caused a change in pressure in the water mains, which can lead to scouring and stirring up sediment deposits in the pipes. The discolored water was caused by the depressurization, per the Aqua spokesperson.
Lake Land’Or resident Tyler Wilson had to buy bottled water to brine his family’s turkey for Thanksgiving dinner in order to not contaminate their meal. He said tasks as simple as washing one’s hands and cooking just about every other dish has become difficult.
“We had to tell our in-laws who traveled all the way from across the country that ‘hey, we know you want to brush your teeth, but now we have to use bottled water,’” Wilson said. “We’re prepping for Thanksgiving, now we have to go out to the store to buy more bottled water.”
Wilson said Aqua Virginia did a good job responding to the crisis, but the same incident occurring two days in a row was frustrating, especially amid Aqua Virginia attempting to raise their monthly water rates by about $50 for the average customer.
Wilson said he wishes there was more communication between Comcast and Aqua, and if there was a risk for accidents, Comcast should have postponed their work until after America’s second biggest holiday.
"We have to reflush everything now," Wilson said. "That's just more money out of our pockets, with a pending rate increase sometime next year."
Aqua Virginia’s team will monitor the system through the weekend. They plan to provide updates to the community through their WaterSmart Alerts system.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
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