
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 3, 1990                   TAG: 9004030260
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PITTSBURGH                                LENGTH: Medium

PITTSBURGH GETS READY FOR FUEL SPILL

Pittsburgh braced for a long-term water crisis Monday as a slow-moving fuel spill snaked down the Allegheny River, threatening supplies to as many as 1 million people.

"I think it's very possible the worst of this is yet to come," said the city's public safety director, Glenn Cannon. "There's no end to it."

A hospital served meals on paper plates, supermarkets sold out of bottled water, schools closed and a steel plant trucked in water to flush its toilets.

A landslide late Friday severed an underground 10-inch-wide pipeline near Freeport, 35 miles north of Pittsburgh. The pipe spilled between 75,000 and 300,000 gallons of gasoline, diesel fuel and kerosene into the river.

Like tumbling dominoes, water companies along the Allegheny were forced to close the intakes of their water treatment plants one by one as the 20-mile-long spill oozed toward Pittsburgh, reaching the city early Monday evening. Some were able to reopen Monday as the spill became more diluted and the water could be treated with filters.

The Pittsburgh Water Department, which serves 450,000 people, still was drawing water from the river and boosting its reservoirs Monday afternoon but was preparing to close its intakes at any moment.

Pittsburgh gets only part of its water from the Allegheny, and had enough reserves to last three to five days, said Cannon. "The long-term impact could be devastating," he said.

Orders to conserve water were issued to at least 400,000 other people served by various other water authorities northeast of Pittsburgh.

At least nine school districts closed Monday, idling more than 21,000 students, and many businesses were affected by the spill.

At Marshall's Amoco station in Natrona Heights about 30 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, the taps and the car wash went dry Sunday afternoon, said attendant Laurie Maycock.

Like many supermarkets in the area, the Shop'N Save in Natrona Heights quickly sold out of 150 cases of bottled water Monday morning.

"That's the thing about water," said manager Bill Rossey. "You don't miss it until it's gone."

by CNB