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Repairs On Broken Napa Water Main Completed

NAPA (CBS SF) -- Repairs have been completed on a broken main water transmission line in Napa and the system should be fully operational by Thursday afternoon, Napa Water Division General Manager Joy Eldredge said.

The repairs were completed around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday and the line is be refilled, Eldredge said. That slow process entails flushing water hydrants, removing air from the water lines and testing the water.

The 36-inch diameter transmission line from the Jamieson Canyon treatment plant in the 1300 block of Foster Road in southwest Napa ruptured around 3:30 p.m. An estimated 1 million gallons spilled before the leak was stopped within two hours, Napa officials said.

Two 16-foot segments of the concrete pipe, installed in 1948, were replaced at a cost between $30,000 and $40,000, Eldredge said.

The break might have been caused when soil-containing water from winter rains swelled and then shrunk around the pipe, Eldredge said.

The break caused some outages, cloudy water from sediment in the lines and low pressure, Napa community outreach coordinator Barry Martin said.

While repairs were made, the city delivered water from its backup treatment plant at Lake Hennessey, Martin said.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services may have contributed to this report.)

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