Hampden County Jail makes adjustments amid boil water order

LUDLOW, MA (WGGB/WSHM) - It was back to normal Thursday for thousands of people impacted by Tuesday’s water main break and boil water order in Springfield and parts of Ludlow. That order was lifted early this morning and was a major relief for residents, businesses, schools, and at the Hampden County House of Corrections, where they care for over 600 people in their custody and several hundred staff.

Tuesday’s water main break affected several areas in western Massachusetts and the Hampden County Jail and House of Corrections was no exception when they received the boil water order just after the final meal of the day.

“The timing worked out well. Our dinner meal was already finished for that evening, so it didn’t impact that whatsoever. Breakfast was already prepped for the morning, so water wasn’t going to be involved in that, so we lucked out there,” said Hampden County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Rob Rizzuto.

Rizzuto told Western Mass News the break only affected the Ludlow campus. There were no issues at their sites in Springfield or Chicopee. In addition to meal prep being already finished for the next morning, he said they had enough bottled water on hand for up to two days.

“Immediately, our friends at the warehouse started ordering more water. We called MEMA and we started planning for a week-long outage, just in case,” Rizzuto added.

He told us they ordered a tanker truck full of water from the state’s emergency management agency. Shortly after the order was lifted, they had to cancel the order, but building this relationship will help them be better prepared for the next water outage.

“So they were actually enroute when we heard water was being restored, so we canceled that, but we built that relationship,” Rizzuto said. “So if we ever need to go into a water emergency like that again, we can literally pick up the phone and they will be here and we can continue business as usual,” Rizzuto explained.

Rizzuto said everyone at the sheriff’s office is grateful to the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission for finding and fixing the issue quickly and for getting clean water back online in just over one day.

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