Residents of Davenport will have to boil their drinking water until at least tonight after a water-main break on Monday left an estimated 8,000 people in a large part of the Quad Cities with no tap water. Brock Earnhardt is president of Iowa American Water Company, and says the cold weather that may have been a factor in the pipe break under River Drive also will hamper repairs.
Throughout the Midwest, Earnhardt says there are more main breaks, some severe, and "we’re just part of that process." Cold not only can freeze water and rupture the pipes, at times frost in the ground will causing shifting, and shove the pipes out of place. It causes metallic water lines to contract, causes the ground to shift and move, and all those things create water leaks, Earnhardt says.
It’s hard to have patience when you lose something we depend on as much as the water supply, and Earnhardt says he understands that. He’s doing his level best to have crews get it restored, quick as they can. An estimated six-Million gallons of water leaked, and between the ice and emergency digging, River Drive is a route to avoid in Davenport for some time.
Scott Community College canceled classes at its downtown Davenport location on Monday, and was planning to reschedule some of them in the evening at another of its locations, until another water pipe broke there at the Belmont campus. Another pipe break at the River City Casino flooded the gambling boat’s thrid and fourth floors with nearly 150-thousand gallons, and in the Iowa County town of North English the main water pipe from the town’s water tower broke last night. It’s now fixed but it may be two days before residents can quit boiling their tap water.