9 Water Main Breaks Repaired, Water Restored To 20,000 People

DENVER (CBS4) - Water main breaks that forced four schools in the north Denver area to close and impacted 20,000 people were repaired just before 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Welby Community School and Monterey Community School were closed Wednesday morning along with Coronado Hills Elementary and McElwain Elementary.

There were nine water main breaks located in the area of East 78th Street and 83rd Avenue in the North Washington Street Water and Sanitation District.

The district told CBS4 about 20,000 residential and business customers were impacted by the breaks.

"Open the store but there's no water. I can't use anything. I can't do dishes, I can't do anything," said Ricco's Burritos Manager Gehan Swaked.

A water main break on 68th Street on Tuesday was to blame for all the other breaks. As crews closed that line off there was so much water pressure that all the other lines were affected.

Crews repaired all nine breaks and restored water to all customers before 5 p.m. Wednesday. The cause of the breaks remains unclear.

"We're sorry that it happened and we hope that everybody realized that we want to supply them with good water," Jim Jamsay with North Washington Street Water and Sanitation District said.