The pipeline that supplies water to thousands of Barrington, Warren and Bristol residents is leaking nearly 300,000 gallons per day, and officials were testing an emergency backup system late this week in case they need to shut the main one down to make repairs.

The leak was discovered Tuesday at the Port of Providence at Fields Point when water started seeping up through the parking lot. Its source has not been precisely located and probably won't be for some time, Bristol County Water Authority Executive Director Pamela Marchand said Thursday afternoon. But she said the leak lies approximately eight to 14 feet under the lot in an area where the BCWA's 20-year-old cross bay pipeline emerges from the Providence River bed.

Fixing it will take some time, she said — two to three weeks.

"It's probably going to take a while," she said. "It's a pretty extensive area (where it could be). You don't just want to start digging holes over there."

The leak is in an area where 30" ductile pipeline couples with 30" steel pipeline, and then down to 24" steel pipeline.

"It looks like it could be on a weld. It's low flow, but (that flow, about 200 gallons per minute) is staying pretty even."

Repairing it won't be a simple matter, she said.

First crews need to pinpoint the leak, but to do that workers will have to install an access port in the pipeline, a job that will require specialized parts that need to be ordered. Once they determine what type of port they need and order it, they will also have to order an "insertion tool" equipped with a camera and sonic ability to help remotely pinpoint the leak.

Ordering and installing the port could take a week, she said, and it could take another week to get the correct instrumentation in place.

"That would be the safest way to go," she said.

"Then we could pinpoint where the leak is and what type of leak it is. Once we get that we would have to order clamps and everything else we need to do the (repair work).

Shut it down?
It is still too early to tell whether the authority will have to turn off flow in the pipeline, which at this time of year supplies up to 3.2 million gallons of waters a day to customers in Barrington, Warren and Bristol. Ideally, Ms. Marchand said, the repairs can be done under pressure, allowing them to keep the water flowing through the pipeline.

But if the system needs to be de-pressurized to do the work, the authority will have to shut down the main pipeline and use an emergency interconnect system installed in East Providence several years ago, which provides emergency water supply to Bristol County via the Scituate Reservoir. That emergency system can supply at least two million gallons per day, Ms. Marchand said, but "we're looking to see whether we can do 3.5 million."
Engineers were expected to be reviewing drawings and data Friday to help close in on the source of the Providence leak, but no other construction at the Port of Providence was expected.

Instead, crews were expected to be working with East Providence officials Friday to test that emergency backup system, and an alert was sent out to East Providence residents Thursday evening saying they might notice disruptions in the flow or color of water coming into their homes and businesses.

Ms. Marchand said that if there is one bright side, it is that the leak occurred now and not during the summer season, when water use increases.

She said the issue shows the vulnerability of Bristol County's system, which does not have a dedicated, redundant water source in case of emergencies.

For several years, BCWA officials have been pushing for permission and funds to build that redundant source, which would cost more than $20 million and would run through East Providence.

The leak is a good example of why she believes it's needed: "We'll be much better off when we get a new connection," Ms. Marchand said.