City Water System Outage and Boil Water Update

Yesterday shortly after midnight, the City of Clayton experienced a water main break on US 441 in front of the Dairy Queen, which caused loss of pressure and water outages throughout the system, affecting everyone in the CIty as well as the cities of Tiger and Maintain City. Once the damaged section of pipe was located, City personnel quickly repaired the damage and started the process of stabilizing and repairing the area, which included part of the roadway on US 441.

 City Crews working on Main Water BreakBroken Water Main Pipe

To help replenish part of the system, the City worked closely with the Rabun County Water and Sewer Authority to provided water from their north plant to our northern most water tank to immediately start the refilling process.

Since the repair, City staff has been working throughout the County to reopen valves, flush hydrants, and testing the system as required. In the meantime, it will take the next day or so to replenish the water tanks to normal capacity throughout the County that supply water to everyone.

The City has issued a Boil Water Advisory for the entire system. In order to protect the public from a potential health hazard, all customers that have experienced water outages and/or low water pressures are advised to “boil” all water prior to use for drinking, cooking, or preparing baby food. The water should be boiled for at least one minute after reaching a rolling boil. Customers should continue to boil their water until they are notified that the water system has been restored to full operation, and that the microbiological quality of the water in the distribution system is safe for human consumption.

 

The Boil Water Advisory is in effect until the City has done the appropriate testing to be confident that there is no longer a public health concern. Customers will be notified when the Advisory is lifted. Once the Advisory is lifted you should flush all faucets for a minimum of two minutes before using for drinking or food preparation.

We will be posting updates through our website and Facebook pages. If you would like these updates delivered to you by email or text message, go to our website and signup up for free. Just look for the section on the website “Subcribe to Receive City Updates”.

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We appreciate your patience as we work to get the system back to normal operation.

If you have any questions, please call City of Clayton Utility Billing Department at (706) 782-4512, press option #1, or email [email protected].