'Big' watermain break leaves most of Stouffville dry: councillor

'I've never seen anything this big,' Coun. Hugo Kroon says

Yorkregion.com
August 12, 2018
Lisa Queen

Most of Stouffville was without water after a large watermain break on Main Street downtown the morning of Aug. 12, Coun. Hugo Kroon said.

“I’ve never seen anything that big,” he said. “I’m just thinking because it’s a big one, it could take a while (to fix). By the sounds of it, the whole town (is without water). I’m getting complaints from all over the place.”

The Whitchurch-Stouffville Leisure Centre was closed because the facility had no running water but has since reopened.

Kroon, who tweeted about the incident, was first alerted to the watermain break by a resident at 9:47 a.m.

Crews from the town and York Region are working to fix the break on Main Street between Ringwood and Sandiford drives and York Regional Police have cordoned off the area to traffic.

“It looks like the water is 18 inches or two feet deep already,” Kroon said at about an hour after he heard of the break.

“Apparently, there is a car or two stuck in it.”

The watermain is the town's infrastructure.

“All we know is the watermain is broken and it appears to be the one between the reservoir on McCowan (Road) and downtown. It’s a sizeable break because just about all the town is complaining about the fact that there is no water,” he said.

“Unfortunately, like a lot of old towns, we’re experiencing a lot of watermain breaks, but they tend to be smaller ones, in the older areas of town. This looked like a substantial one.”

Half the town’s water comes from the reservoir and half is served by wells, he said.

Check back for updates on this developing story.