McKeesport: Water advisory lifted for Lower 10th Ward

By JEFF STITT

jstitt@yourmvi.com

For 26 days, people at five addresses in McKeesport’s Lower 10th Ward were unable to drink water from the tap.

On Thursday morning, they got refreshing news.

Following 26 days of flushing and the 13th round of test results, Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County lifted the final restrictions on water use for customers in the neighborhood. The restrictions had been in place since the early-morning hours of July 17.

But those five customers weren’t the only people impacted by the water advisories and notices.

After 10:30 p.m. on July 16, McKeesport Fire Department officials informed MAWC that firefighting foam may have been introduced into the area’s drinking water system during a fire at McKeesport Auto Body on Rebecca Street.

In the early-morning hours of July 17, the entire Lower 10th Ward was placed on a do-not-use restriction. 

On Thursday, MAWC spokesman Matt Junker said that while about 500 accounts were once in that area, the actual number of customer accounts today is 256.

Subsequent test results of the water system conducted after the fire found “constituents of PFAS-containing class B firefighting foam were present in the water system near the fire.”

“This didn’t need to happen. Our customers should not have been subjected to this level of inconvenience and concern, and the cost in time and money to resolve this issue was excessive,” MAWC Resident Manager Michael F. Kukura said in a press release.

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