SAN BENITO — City work crews restored water service in part of the downtown area after fixing a main line leak.
City Manager Manuel De La Rosa said yesterday crews restored water to the area between Rowson Street and Business 77 at about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday after replacing two leaking valves along the old iron high-pressure line between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m.
Crews shut off water at about 7:30 a.m. to fix the leak, he said.
“It happens when you have aging infrastructure,” De La Rosa said. “(The pipes) get corroded. They get old. Valves deteriorate faster. They were old and needed to be replaced.”
The leak was not the result of any problems at the city’s water plant.
“A water main has nothing to do with the water plant,” De La Rosa said. “It’s just maintenance.”
De La Rosa did not have information readily available on the number of water customers affected.
“It didn’t affect a big area,” he said. “It affected a centralized area.”
The cut in water service also did not affect early voting for the May 6 election.
De La Rosa said the city rented two portable toilets placed at the city’s polling place at the Community Building on Heywood Street.
“We didn’t want it to affect the voting,” he said.
Timeline
Water main line leak identified at midnight
Water service cut off at 7:30 a.m.
Water service restored at 10:30 a.m.
