GIWA to village: Water may be out next week
Gasparilla Island Water Association, Inc. will be replacing five broken water valves, and installing two new main water valves next week in the village.
The new valves will allow GIWA to turn off isolated areas for repairs in the event of future water main breaks.
In order to install the new valves however, water service will be interrupted for a fairly large area on Tuesday, Sept. 22 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The areas affected are as follows:
- East side of East Railroad Avenue from Fifth to Third Streets including residents just south of Third Street;
- Palm Avenue from Fifth Street to Waterways Avenue;
- Tarpon Avenue from Fifth Street to Waterways Avenue;
- Lee Avenue from Fifth Street to Waterways Avenue;
- Bradley Avenue from Fifth to Fourth Streets;
- Fifth Street from Palm to Bayou Avenues;
- Fourth Street from East Railroad to Lee Avenues;
- Third Street from East Railroad to Lee Avenues.
GIWA has contracted Rusty Plumbing, Inc. to install the valves. To minimize the amount of time water is off, advance preparation will be conducted on Monday, and two separate crews will be installing the valves.
GIWA will also issue a Precautionary Boil Water Notice that will be in effect until two consecutive days’ water samples show no contamination occurred as a result of the loss of water pressure and installation of the new valves.
The earliest GIWA can expect the sample results will be around lunch time on Thursday, September 24, 2015.
The notice will advise as a precaution that all water used for drinking, cooking, making ice, brushing teeth or washing dishes be boiled.
A rolling boil of one minute is sufficient. As an alternative, bottled water may be used.
Residents and businesses are encouraged to store water in containers for use during the water outage, and for use during the Precautionary Boil Water Notice. Additionally, ice makers should be turned off before water service is restored. Any ice made before the service interruption is fine for use.
The Precautionary Boil Water Notice and notice of water service interruption will be hand delivered to each residence and business Monday morning.
GIWA wants to apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but without these new valves, this same large area would require a shut-down without any notice in the event of a water main break. The new valves will allow us to isolate much smaller areas.
