Update: Greenwich Water Service Should Be Back to Normal

Updated: 2:35 p.m.

Water service should be back to normal in the Cos Cob, Riverside and Old Greenwich neighborhoods Friday afternoon after an Aquarion spokesman said the utility’s Mianus Water Treatment plant shutdown early Friday.

When asked what caused the low to no water pressure in those neighborhoods, here is the explanation provided by Aquarion Water Co. spokesman Peter Fazekas: “The plant shut down based upon an internal situation, as it was supposed to, and we are going to rectify the situation so it will not happen again.”

The company has not responded to a request to explain the “internal situation.” 

Updated: 10:30 a.m.

Aquarion Water Co. spokesman Peter Fazekas said the Mianus Water Treatment plant is back on line and the utility expects full service to be restored by noon.

Here’s the statement he released Friday morning: “We had a disruption of service at our Mianus Treatment Plant this morning, which caused low pressure / no water in parts of Cos Cob and Riverside. The plant this back online. We expect most customers to have normal pressure by 11:00 am and the remaining customers before noon. Some customers may experience water discoloration. We are in the processing of cleaning the water mains.”

Police Chief James Heavey said apparently a backup generator to keep the water plant operating had failed when the power outage occurred. He said that CL&P crews were at the scene and were expected to have work completed by around 11:30 a.m.

Updated: 9:55 a.m., Sept. 19:

According to Greenwich Public School spokesman Kim Eves, the low pressure situation has impacted the Cos Cob Elementary School and Greenwich High School. “Our Facilities Department is working with the Town and Aquarion to assess the situation,” said Eves, an Old Greenwich resident who said she experienced low water pressure at her home Friday morning.

CL&P spokesman Mitch Gross said in a statement, “There was an outage on Davis Avenue just before 7 a.m. that was caused by a squirrel - 210 customers were affected - the last of those had their power back by 8:15 a.m. We currently have no other reports of power issues in Greenwich.” Gross said, “Police and officials are incorrect. There are some other electrical contractors at the site. If there is a power issue, it’s internal.”

Original story: 9:21 a.m. Sept. 19

A power outage Friday morning at the water treatment plant on Valley Road in the North Mianus neighborhood of Greenwich is causing low or no water pressure in the Cos Cob, Riverside and Old Greenwich sections of town, officials said.

According to Greenwich Police Lt. David Nemecek, crews from Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P) are on the scene making repairs. “We don’t have an ETA on when they’re going to finish (repairs). There’s an issue with water pressure,” Nemecek said.

Spokesmen for CL&P and Aquarion Water Co. were not immediately available for comment.

Patch will update this story as details become available.

If you’re experiencing issues with water service or power outages in the area, let us know in the comments.