State of emergency in Adams may last a few weeks

ADAMS — A water shortage could keep the village under a state of emergency for a couple of weeks, Mayor Patricia C. Sweetland said Wednesday.

The village declared an emergency Tuesday afternoon after water conservation measures put in place Monday did not rectify the supply problem.

Mrs. Sweetland said several factors have contributed to the shortage, especially heavy use of the water system over the summer for construction projects, such as the expansion at Great Lakes Cheese, and the village's water tower being down for routine maintenance.

The spring-fed aquifers that are supposed to replenish the village's well system could not keep up with the demand.

"All of these things together mean that our pumps have been running non-stop and our wells are just not recovering quickly enough," Mrs. Sweetland said. "The pumps and wells need a rest in order to recover."

Declaring a state of emergency should take some of the strain off the wells. Because of the declaration, the state Emergency Management Office will allow the village to draw water from two uncovered reservoirs, one behind O.D. Greene Lumber on Route 11 and a second behind Country View Apartments on East Church Street.

As part of the plan, the state will hook up a portable filtration unit to the reservoirs, with filtered water being drawn into the village's system, where it will be treated as normal with chlorine. Mrs. Sweetland said the village is not issuing a "boil water" advisory, although she has heard some concerns over cloudy water. She said anyone with concerns should drink bottled water or boil it first.

While the emergency state is in effect, she said several neighboring volunteer fire departments will serve as automatic mutual aid to the village, including automatically bringing their tanker trucks to fire calls. Firefighters also will not be using hydrants as they did briefly during Sunday's fire at the former Greenley Fuel Co. warehouse on Phelps Street. The mayor said the use of the hydrants was not the cause of the current water shortage.

"It certainly didn't help, but it's not the sole reason for anything," she said. "They used what they had to in the first few minutes of the fire, but they quickly got tankers in here and stopped drawing off the system."

She said the low flows have not contributed to any infrastructure problems within the village's system. She said there has been a water line break within the past few days, which contributed to other small breaks, but said that such a break is a "routine occurrence."

Mrs. Sweetland said the filtration equipment should be in place with "within a day or so," although it could be some time before the wells are replenished. She said work on the water tower should be completed for the winter in about two weeks, putting it back into operation, although it will still have to be filled.

She expressed appreciation to Joseph D. Plummer, Jefferson County's director of fire and emergency management, for his efforts in obtaining state help and coordinating mutual aid among fire departments.