Those of us on N Ode Street and probably many more have been without water since yesterday afternoon (July 10, 2017). Arlington County DES notified us via twitter that restoration was expected by 9 am today, July 11. Now they predict restoration of water service will be 3 pm today.

From what I understand, the Comcast contractors that are installing fiber in the neighborhood were drilling several feet underground and drilled through the edge of a large water main, causing the break. When walking by the location of the break last night you could clearly see the orange tubing that had been installed alongside the water main.

Hopefully, Comcast will fully reimburse Arlington County for the cost of these repairs. One wonders how a piece of underground infrastructure as large as this water main could be missed or wrongly interpreted when the utility markings were done. Several weeks ago when the crew were installing conduit and cable down Ode St, they hit a gas line. Washington Gas immediately responded, determined it was an older unused, but till pressurized gas line, and resolved the problem in an hour or so with no service outage. Again, the location of the underground pipes was missed.

I've asked Arlington DES, via a Twitter posting, if Comcast is paying for the restoration of water service due to their drilling. I've also asked if Arlington County is working with Comcast to provide affected residents with bottled water today, one of the hottest days of this summer. So far no response.

If you use Twitter you can join follow along by doing a search for @ArlingtonDES .