Steady stream of water leaking from Sharpsburg water tower

SHARPSBURG — A Sharpsburg water tower has been leaking a continuous stream of water for the last five days.

“We typically use this path for walking. Two days ago, we saw water spurting out of that thing, looks rusted or whatever, we were going to call the township,” Gary Free said.

Walkers tell us they were surprised to see the water still spraying down on Tuesday.

“It looks like it’s getting worse, actually. I’m surprised there’s no township trucks out here and repairing and all that stuff," Free said.

The Hampton Shaler Water Authority said they’re getting emergency permits through the DEP and the proper materials in order to fix the leak. The tank will have to be emptied for the repairs, which are set to take place next week.

The water company says the situation is not affecting their ability to provide safe drinking water.

For background, the Hampton Shaler Water Authority supplies more than 1.3 billion gallons of water annually to several communities.

Even though the tank will be offline during the repairs, customers won’t be impacted because their service will instead come from an alternate water source.

Once repairs are made, a coating will be applied and have to cure for 24 hours, then the tank will be disinfected and the water tested before returning to service.

The cause of the leak remains under investigation.

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