City Urges Conservation After Water Pump Outage
The Pikesville pumping station is running on generator power, but city officials still urge conservation during today's heat advisory.
Baltimore City public works officials urge residents and businesses in northwest Baltimore city and county to conserve water, as crews repair a power outage at a pumping station.
The Pikesville water pumping station lost power overnight in the wake of Friday's thunderstorms. Baltimore Gas and Electric crews are currently attempting to restore power to the pumping station The station is running on generator power, according to officials, but to cope with high demand caused by today's expected high heat, businesses and residents are being asked to cut back.
"It is vital that citizens and business reduce their water use immediately so that water can be available to vital services including firefighting, medical facilities, senior citizens complexes and others," said Al Foxx, director of Baltimore City's Department of Public Works, in a statement.
Water is either out or running at very low pressure in Park Heights, Lochearn, Pikesville, Randallstown, Pleasant Hill, Owings Mills, Reisterstown, Glyndon and surrounding areas, according to officials.
In the statement, Foxx asked residents in affected areas to avoid watering gardens, car washing, pool-filling and unnecessary indoor cleaning until the issues are resolved.
Brian H
8:04 pm on Sunday, July 1, 2012
Thanks for staying on top of this Tyler.
Herbert G. Oster
8:04 pm on Sunday, July 1, 2012
Thanks for the update. Here in the Worthington Park area, there is NO flow at all. PLEASE KEEP THE UPDATES COMING. Thanks to BGE for all their efforts!
ZIG
2:29 pm on Saturday, June 30, 2012
I would love to conserve if I had any Water !!!!!
toby watkins
2:57 pm on Saturday, June 30, 2012
Exactly what is going on? Every time there is a 'major' weather event.... We lose power or water... Are we not paying enough to get better technologies to be installed and used? Why do we only have one pump supplying so many areas?
twopageafro
4:01 pm on Saturday, June 30, 2012
Agreed.
Gregory Hill
3:38 pm on Saturday, June 30, 2012
Sounds like they have no clue whatsoever when it will be restored. Other than "not immediately".
JerryMc
4:11 pm on Saturday, June 30, 2012
Communicate....
What's the reason? We're hearing about potentially major watermain breaks, predictions of no water at all until July 4 or later. Come on you guys. Someone knows. Let the rest of us in on it.
Timothy Feaser
4:14 pm on Saturday, June 30, 2012
This is the second time in two years we have experienced a major disruption in service. Why do we tolerate such total incompenence? It was a thunderstorm - not as bad as the ones I grew up with in the mid-west. If a relatively small weather event causes this much disruption, I'd hate to see a true emergency! I say its time these incompentent idiots get their act together and figure out a way to provide basic infrastructure. I'm tired of living in a third world country.
Ginger Reposado
5:20 pm on Saturday, June 30, 2012
Agreed!!
Bob Wille
2:27 pm on Sunday, July 1, 2012
All you complainers can stop the incompetancy with your votes, but all the idiots in this state continue to re-elect the same political hacks. Wise up!!!
Brian H
2:40 pm on Sunday, July 1, 2012
@ Bob Wille...and who do you recommend Bob. It does not matter if your candidate is democrat or republican, they all sell out to special interest and corporate lobbyists.
Adam Thomas
5:04 pm on Saturday, June 30, 2012
BGE is absolutely horrible. I work with a guy who used to work for BGE and apparently they moved their headquarters because they couldn't keep the building from losing power. If BGE is a legal monopoly, why does the government not step in and tell them to fix their crap?
D Glaser
7:27 pm on Saturday, June 30, 2012
Nice one. Why is it I feel like I live in a 3rd w
orld country. Our infrastructure is a mess and al we do is put a band aid on until the next event. That event is the next storm which will knock power and water out for a week.
theadore mann
8:48 pm on Saturday, June 30, 2012
Really? You guys lose water for 12 hours and you whine like children. Third world country? Storms in mid west? Look we have a lot of trees over power lines, power goes out when they fall. Even with two pumps they need juice to run. How about you take a little extra care buy some water bottles, have a couple of gallon jugs for flushing, and get a generator if you need it. No I don't work for bge or the water dept.
Brian H
10:12 pm on Saturday, June 30, 2012
I am prepared mann. Part of the issue is that we have a Federal/State government that wastes obscene amounts of money on pork barrel projects. We now have government programs that provide cell phones free of charge (aka tax dollars) to the poor. At what point did a cell phone become a necessity? Congress recently spent 112 million to refurbish an air force base that was being converted to civilian use. Coincidentally, the senator on the appropriations committee had invested in the airport with his brother. Government is supposed to handle the larger issue like rebuilding a sound infrastructure, to include power, water, sewage, etc. I am sure the money we spend on free phones for the poor and internet access for the incarcerated could buy a quality back-up generator (or two) so the tax payer could keep the water flowing, or bury the electrical lines underground like they do with new construction (which rarely lose power) unless the main power generator is hit (a rarity). I am well stocked and well prepared (even have a really nice Honda generator with an automatic transfer switch). It would be nice to see my tax dollars actually used for worthwhile projects that benefit the greater good (and not special or corporate interest).
Timothy Feaser
10:30 pm on Saturday, June 30, 2012
You sort of missed my point. Seldom did the storms in the midwest knock out our power; and I can't remember a single time that our water was ever knocked out - even in flooding conditions. Apparently in the 1960's our infrastructure had the ability to cope with these storms. What happened? I freely admit that I'm a wimp when it comes to losing my water. (Losing power - not so much) I understand that occassionally outages will occur. But if I understand this situation correctly, the water department does not have emergency generators that can be put online quickly. Now here's my point: All that was effected was the Reisterstown Corridor. What would happen if we had a real emergency and the whole city (or the whole state) were effected? All these billions spent on homeland security and we still can't restore the water supply from a simple power outage in a few hours? Total incompetence! I shudder to think what a terrorist attack would do.
Tom Hope
12:03 pm on Sunday, July 1, 2012
We did have a plan to keep some extra water in the Reisterstown area but, some thought the tower wouldn't look pretty. Having that tower would have kept everyone in a bit more water for a bit longer. This supposed leadership we have is truly lack luster. How about stepping up Zirkin, Kamenetz, Cardin, Morhaim, Stein. Maybe a public safety notice about fires since there is no water in the hydrants
EB Levitt
7:29 pm on Monday, July 2, 2012
I"d just like to thank Del. Dana Stein for responding to my e-mail on Saturday morning about the loss of water--not just in my neighborhood but also in a senior citizen community where my elderly mother lives. Del. Stein contacted the City DPW and BGE and called me twice during the day with updates. He really cared--even though his own home was without electricity. It seems ridiculous that the water department doesn't have a back-up generator on a pumping station that would automatically kick in when the power goes out!
Tom Hope
3:10 pm on Friday, July 20, 2012
And here we go again...Big Surprise, a major water main break in Baltimore City. I guess since there was a call to sue BG&E for the length of time to restore power after the storm we need to file suit against Baltimore City for failure to make the repairs to the water system. Instead the Mayor(s) keep kicking the can down the street and do nothing. The double standard of holding private companies accountable for a public utility maintenance whilst crying poor when its the governments responsibility really grinds me. Being without water is far worse than being without electricity. Please show some leadership skills Mayor Stephanie I'm sure you can find a contractor friend to give this work to and make this system work.