Break leaves Port Burwell, Vienna without water

A pipeline break along Nova Scotia Line northwest of Port Burwell and a couple kilometres east of Richmond Road left all of Bayham’s municipal water customers without the service for several hours on Friday, Sept. 5. Bayham Water and Wastewater Operations Manager Ed Roloson said about 760 water customers in Port Burwell and Vienna were affected by the pipeline break, the cause of which was unknown. The break was first reported that day at about 2:15 p.m. It took some time for public works staff to find the location of the large leak and then a valve was applied to stem the loss of water at about 3:30 p.m. Mr. Roloson said the contractor was on site and water service would likely be restored to Port Burwell and Vienna residents by about 10 p.m. that night. Elgin St. Thomas Public Health officials had already been notified and Mr. Roloson said the agency would not be issuing a boil water advisory. Once the pipeline break was fixed, the line would be flushed, testing for chlorine levels would be conducted and a series of micro bacterial samples would be sent to a laboratory for testing.