Burlington Asks Residents to Conserve Water After Sewer Pipe Breaks 

The City of Burlington is urging residents in a large swath of the New North End to reduce the amount of water and waste they put into the sewer system as workers prepare to fix a broken pipe in the Winooski River.

Untreated sewage has been leaking into the river near its confluence with Lake Champlain since early Wednesday after a pipe that conveys wastewater to the North Plant broke. With water levels in the Winooski still high, the city has been unable to make repairs.

For the time being, the Department of Public Works plans to pump the sewage into trucks that will haul it to the plant for treatment. That could begin on Thursday night, with a truck that has a 4,000-gallon capacity. A second truck could join the effort on Friday.
But with limited capacity, the city is asking residents who live in hundreds of homes north of Institute Avenue — and mainly east of North Avenue — to reduce their wastewater by limiting toilet flushes, taking shorter showers and limiting baths, running the dishwasher less often, and turning off the faucet while washing hands or teeth.

Conservation is especially important during peak periods, the city said: 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. To see whether your address is included, click here.
The city expects to keep the conservation measures in place for up to two weeks. In the meantime, workers are constructing a bypass pipe that will pump the sewage to the North Plant until the break can be repaired.

The plant typically processes about 800,000 gallons of wastewater a day, according to Public Works Director Chapin Spencer. Even with the pumper trucks in use, about 250,000 gallons of untreated wastewater will continue flowing into the Winooski River daily until the bypass pipe can be built, Spencer wrote in an email.
The sewage leak prompted the city to warn residents against swimming in areas within a mile of the break, including the North Shore Natural Area; Colchester has also posted signs for some of its lakefront access points.

Other Burlington beaches are open, though state officials have warned against swimming in many Vermont waterways. The Department of Environmental Conservation, for instance, said on Thursday that “recreation, wading, boating, swimming, or fishing should be avoided for several days until flows return to normal levels.”

Several other towns are under boil water notices. Richmond on Thursday told its residents to boil water for at least 10 more days due to delays in getting municipal water test results back.