FEDERALSBURG, Md. - Federalsburg officials say a power outage at the water and sewer plant caused water pressure to deplete over the weekend, causing water disruptions into Monday morning.
The Town of Federalsburg has provided official updates on their Facebook page notifying residents of the water outage. In a post Sunday, the town says on Friday afternoon there was a power outage at the Water/Sewage plant that caused all operating systems to go down for a short period of time, leading to water pressure being depleted from the system.
One entire water tower was emptied, according to officials, as well as the miles of lines that feed the entire town.
Officials say water pressure will not be restored to residences instantly. The air that is in the water mains must be moved through the mains, and the pumps for the wells are trying to restore the water level in the water tower. The town says residences that have water are receiving this water by the head pressure that remained in the tank. (Head pressure comes from the amount of water that's in the tank and the weight of that water is pushing some water through the lines to their homes.)
The town says the water tower holds hundreds of thousands of gallons, in additions to the miles of lines which supply the town.
On Monday, January 29th, the Town announced an emergency meeting was held to further discuss the issue and the plan to alleviate it. Town officials say that 2 of their 3 wells were airlocked from being drained. As of about 9:30 a.m., all 3 wells were back online but the Town still needs to fill the water towers and lines that were empty.
The Town asked neighbors to conserve water consumption while the filling was taking place.
Bottled water is reportedly being offered for pickup at the Fedralsburg Volunteer Fire Company beginning at noon. Federalsburg officials say water delivery is available to those who cannot drive to the pickup location by calling 410-754-8173.
Federalsburg Elementary School announced it would be closed due to the water issue Monday morning.
For more updates and a timeline of the water outage, you can visit the Town of Federalsburg's Facebook page by clicking here.
