Age to blame for water main break

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Al Hapeman, an employee of Connecticut Water, works to assess the cause of a water main break at the intersection of Field Street and North Church Street in Naugatuck on Wednesday. -LARAINE WESCHLER/REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

NAUGATUCK — A water main break near the intersection of Field Street and North Church Street closed a portion of Field Street Wednesday and left some customers without water for much of the day and into Thursday morning.

Daniel Meaney, director of corporate communications for Connecticut Water, said the problem started at about 3 p.m. when a crew was working to install water service for a customer. He said the corporation stop, a piece of equipment that connects a customer’s water line to a water main, failed causing water to leak from the main.

As workers sought to shut off a valve to control the leak and repair the pipe, Meaney said the valve also broke. He said workers had to cut off water to a larger section of the main because the valve broke. At first, he said, about eight customers were without water, but that number grew to about 30 customers.

Meaney said two crews worked until about 7 a.m. Thursday morning replacing a section of the water main and restoring water to customers.

Meaney said the age of the pipes, which are about 100 years old, caused the problems and not the recent frigid temperatures. Though, he added, the cold spell does make repairing and maintaining pipes more challenging.

“We apologize for the inconvenience to our customers, and we appreciate the work of crews for sticking with it in these tough conditions,” Meaney said.