Pasadena : Broken Water Main Fixed

In one of the worst local disruptions of water service in the last 15 years, as many as 5,000 customers throughout Northwest and Central Pasadena were without water, some for as long as 14 hours, earlier this week while crews worked through the night to repair a broken water main.

The break occurred about 3 p.m. Monday on a two-foot-diameter transmission pipe that had somehow been weakened at Hammond and Glen avenues. By 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, the service had been restored.

“A lot of concrete had to be removed to get access to the broken water main,” said Phil Auzenne, water system supervisor for the Pasadena Water and Power Department. In addition, he said, a wall over the work area “presented a potential hazard that slowed the repair effort” and there was a high-voltage power conduit below the break.

The water department distributed 150 one-gallon bottles of water to customers with special needs and provided a local manufacturing firm with a 1,500-gallon water truck to serve its overnight water requirements.

The area affected was bordered roughly by Lincoln and Fair Oaks avenues on the west, Hammond Street on the north, Mountain and Corson streets on the south and Craig Avenue on the east.