Beth Daley and Michael Levenson in the Boston Globe: Engineers and welders successfully rejoined two huge water pipes inside a muddy crater early this morning, and state officials said they hope to restore clean water within days to 2 million residents of Greater Boston.People in the city and 29 of its most populous suburbs, whose clean-water supply was cut off by a catastrophic and unprecedented pipe rupture, remained without clean tap water for a second day yesterday. The region braced for the start of school and the workweek today while still facing orders to boil any water used for drinking and cooking.
State officials said they were unable to explain exactly what caused the rupture in a collar helping to connect two major water pipes. House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo said he would convene hearings as soon as this week to probe the failure, and Attorney General Martha Coakley said she would review reports of price gouging by stores selling bottled water.
… The crisis began early Saturday, when the metal collar, which wrapped around a rubber gasket, ruptured in a pipe system that delivers water from the Quabbin Reservoir to Boston. The collar, along with millions of gallons of water, then washed into the nearby Charles River. … Laskey said the failure could have been caused by the design, construction, or installation of the collar. Officials did rule out one theory discussed early in the crisis: that a minor earthquake could have jolted the pipes.
The collar, a large version of a standard component used to connect pipes or pipe segments in many water systems locally and nationally, was installed seven years ago by Barletta Heavy Division of Canton, the same firm that is fixing it now. State officials said they asked the company to make the repairs because it knows the pipe system well, had a replacement collar available, and had heavy equipment near the scene….
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