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The trouble began earlier this week at OWASA’s Jones Ferry Road water treatment <br />plant, with what utility officials termed “an accidental overfeed of fluoride within” the <br />treatment process. <br />They hadn’t said, as of about 3:30 p.m. on Friday, how large the overfeed was. <br />But James Groves, Durham County’s emergency management director, told officials in <br />Durham’s governments his information is that “about half of their total fluoride stock” <br />went into the mix, essentially rendering all the water that was in the Jones Ferry Road <br />plant at the time “un-usable and unfit for consumption.” <br />OWASA was able to prevent that from reaching its distribution network, and contacted <br />Durham city officials, to tap into two emergency interconnections to secure a backup <br />supply of water. <br />By Friday, Durham was sending OWASA water at the rate of about 7 million gallons a <br />day, said Vicki Westbrook, the city’s assistant director of water management. <br />Still, with the Jones Ferry Road plant offline, water levels in OWASA’s storage tanks fell. <br />And then on Friday, things took a turn for the worse when a water main broke off <br />Dobbins Drive, along U.S. 15-501 near the old Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North <br />Carolina headquarters. <br />The loss of 1.5 million gallons from the break torpedoed water pressure, a health <br />concern because without pressure, water doesn’t flow and harmful bacteria can more <br />easily grow in the mains. The water loss itself also meant there wasn’t enough supply. <br />“Due to low pressure in the OWASA service area, we are not sure if the water is safe for <br />consumption,” the county health department told the area’s residents. “Unt il testing has <br />been completed, we are issuing a ‘do not drink’ order. Boiling water is not <br />recommended. Only bottled water is recommended.”