Dayton water outage: Leak, break could be at river crossing, Mayor Whaley says

Mayor Nan Whaley posted a statement to her Facebook page about the Dayton water shortage.

She posted it about 11:23 p.m. Here is that statement in its entirety:

UPDATE: The City is experiencing a significant loss of water in the millions of gallons within our distribution system. 

Crews have been working in the field checking water valves along major distribution lines and at river crossings to determine where the break and/or leak is located. 

It is highly possible due to the amount of water being lost, that the break and/or leak is at a river crossing; however, our crews continue to systematically check major lines and river crossing in an attempt to isolate the location of the break. 

Because the river is at a very high level due to recent rain events and moving swiftly, it is also highly likely a break at this location would not be seen. 

Out of an abundance of caution, the City has issued a precautionary, not mandatory, boil water advisory at this time. 

The City’s system has three pressure zones: super high, high, and low. The part of the system impacted is the high pressure zone, which includes the northeast, northwest, southeast city of Dayton and upper southeast part of the County system. 

At this time both of the City’s Water Plants are pumping at increased capacity to bring the water system and elevated tanks back into service; however, the areas of the system that have been isolated to help track down the leak will still be out of water. Crews are continuing the process of inspecting over 1600 miles of pipe within the total distribution system to identify and isolate the location of the leak. 

These crews will remain in the field until that time. Once located, distribution crews will devise a plan for repair. 

It should be noted that the following cities within the County which have their own water systems are not impacted by the precautionary boil water advisory: Cities of Oakwood, Huber Heights, Vandalia, Englewood, Miamisburg, and West Carrollton. 

We will continue to update as more information becomes available.