MCALESTER-- City of McAlester Mayor John Browne said Saturday that all residents should have water service to some extent now; some may have low pressure or be sporadic.
On Wednesday afternoon, McAlester/Pittsburg County Emergency Management said that the precautionary boil advisory for the City of McAlester and RWD #5, has been lifted.
Precautionary boil advisory remains in place for RWD #6, RWD #7, RWD #9 and RWD #16 after a major water leak of a 20-inch pipeline.
Emergency Management Services spokesman for McAlester, Kevin Enloe, said it is not a mandatory boil order, but EMS is asking residents to voluntarily boil water before using it for cooking, consuming or cleaning purposes.
"Some of the water may come out of the faucets brown and some may come out clean, but just because it looks clear doesn't mean you shouldn't boil it first," said Enloe. "The water may have some contaminants in it that are not good for consumption or use."
Enloe said that part of the city was still without water Saturday, but all residents were expected back on line by the end of the day.
McAlester residents were completely without water due to the major leak found in the early morning hours Friday.
Mayor Browne posted, in part, the following message on Facebook early Saturday morning:
"I just left the water plant and we have the #2 pump running. It pumps approximately 4,400 gallons per minute. At this time, it is the only pump running. I will explain that later in this message. We do have one Rural District that is still without water being pumped. This is due to the line break yesterday. We have a crew working to get that up and going.
"What happened overnight is when the system ran low, it also emptied the filter beds. This forced us to backwash the filters in order to insure quality water was being pumped. This is now completed and we are pumping water back into the system.
The mayor asked that everyone conserve as much as possible throughout the day Saturday to allow water towers to refill.
"If you can put off doing laundry, etc. until later in the day it will help us refill the system," he said. "At this point there is no indication of any contamination and we are working very hard to make sure that continues."
Mayor Browne said he expected to have some water flowing for everyone by noon Saturday. He said service might have low pressure or be sporadic until all systems are back to normal.
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