Pharmacy sustains damage when abandoned pipe bursts

By Bob Fleming

Staff Writer

ALLENTOWN — Borough officials and local merchants are crediting the quick response from the Hope Fire Company and Consumers New Jersey Water Co. in minimizing property damage and disruption in water service in the downtown area following an underground service line break that occurred on May 21.

According to Richard Walter, the owner of Walter’s Pharmacy at the intersection of Church and Main streets, his basement sustained damage when water from an abandoned underground service line leaked out and exploded through the basement wall of the building at about 9:50 a.m. May 21.

"We were inside the building when we felt this strong vibration that shook everything around us," Walter said. "I thought it must have felt like an earthquake. We rushed outside to see what had happened."

According to Walter, after finding nothing wrong outside the building, he and his employees decided to conduct a top to bottom search inside the pharmacy to determine if everything was all right.

"One of the clerks went down to the basement and discovered the basement beginning to fill with water which was gushing from a 2-foot hole that had burst open in the wall from the force of the water behind the wall," Walter said. "It looked like Niagara Falls indoors."

Walter contacted the Hope Fire Company, which immediately dispatched emergency services personnel with a pump to the pharmacy, to begin pumping the water from the basement.

"The water was coming in as fast as they were pumping it out," he said. "The water company contractors arrived shortly thereafter and began digging to locate the source of the water rushing into the basement."

According to Wes Plaisted, vice president and central division manager of Consumers New Jersey Water Co., Hamil-ton, which is under contract with the borough to provide water and sewage systems services, a repair crew was dispatched to Church Street to determine the cause of the flooding.

"The crew began to excavate on Church Street and discovered an active service line that was corroded, but was not the source of the water leak," Plaisted said. "Upon further digging, an abandoned service line that used to provide water service to businesses on Church Street, which had been crimped off years ago, apparently rotted away and broke, sending the water in that line into the pharmacy’s basement."

The Consumers Co. turned off water service to about six merchants and businesses near Walter’s Pharmacy while the abandoned pipe was sealed off, the active pipe was checked and had maintenance work performed on it before water service was restored to the area.

"All things considered, we were able to minimize the inconvenience and restore service by nightfall," Plaisted said. "Had it been a water main break, things would have been much worse."

Borough police rerouted downtown traffic away from Church and Main streets until the excavation and repair work was completed, Plaisted said.

According to Walter, who is still cleaning up the mud damage in his basement and is awaiting a mason to repair the hole in the wall, the water leak could have had more serious consequences if it had occurred when the pharmacy was closed.

"The inconvenience wasn’t too bad, all things considered. Thanks to everyone who responded and came by to help, we managed," he said.