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Aliquippa Residents Deal With 2nd Water Main Break

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The past 48 hours have been a nightmare for thousands of residents in Aliquippa.

On Thursday, a huge water main break left most residents without water. That break was repaired, but the city is coping with another break today.

Crews had to pump thousands of gallons of water out of a hole on Franklin Avenue just to get to the broken 16-inch line.

"When we get down to the pipe, then we'll know what we have," said Bob Digiovine, of the Aliquippa Water Authority. "Right now, it's a break. We don't know how bad; how soon it will be repaired."

Nine-thousand customers were already being asked to conserve water after the first break Thursday left most residents without service.

Since then, some service has been restored and the city has been providing residents with water.

"These pipes didn't get old just right now; they've been old for a while now," said Aliquippa Mayor Dwan Walker. "I have the confidence in the water authority that they're going to get the job done. If people need water or anything, they can call, come down to the water authority building, bring their jugs and get filled up for free."

The good news, water service has been restored to three senior citizen high rises, but there are still hundreds of customers throughout the neighborhoods who don't have any water.

Steven Marshall is one of many residents in the Sheffield neighborhood who have been coping with the lack of water.

"Not good; we just can't do our normal… take a bath, do our dishes, laundry," said Marshall.

RELATED LINKS:
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