For the second time in the last year, Mapleton, Oregon, announced a boil water notice once again to residents of the unincorporated community in Lane County, reflecting long-time neglect of Mapleton Water District’s infrastructure.

The boil water notice lasted from April 30 to May 6. This was due to pressure loss and was believed to be because of a leak in the town’s water infrastructure. On May 1, a leak was discovered underneath a bridge.

The notice was issued in accordance with Oregon Drinking Water Services’ requirements until testing could confirm the water was safe to drink. Mapleton has had several instances of both water outages and boil notices over the last year.

Vanessa West, chair of the Mapleton Water Board, said issues stem from the neglect of Mapleton Water District’s infrastructure. She said the concrete asbestos pipes had a life expectancy of 50 to 70 years. The pipes, installed in the early 1950s, are roughly three years past this expectancy and have had little to no maintenance since then. She said she estimates the cost of pipe replacement to be around $15 million. 

West said Mapleton Water District has written grants and requested money from Oregon’s government, but it could be two or three years until the money is received, and the government will likely never give the full amount at one time. 

West said that she anticipates that the water district will continue to struggle to provide reliable water until the pipes are fixed.

West said she expects water insecurity issues to remain until the pipes are able to get replaced.

According to West, the first step for getting water to the community during an outage or boil notice is contacting Lane County Emergency Management Services. The water district explains to emergency services that they need both drinkable and non drinkable water and do not have an estimated time when water will be back on.

The last water outage for Mapleton was during December of last year. Another occurred in December of 2021. West expects outages to get more frequent every year as the pipes continue to age.

Sue Wilson, superintendent of Mapleton School District, said the schools have to take extra measures during a boil notice or water outage; cooking for students becomes the most impacted thing during a boil water notice, Wilson said. School kitchens require potable water for handwashing and using completely disposable dishware.

Drinking fountains are completely shut down until a boil notice ends. Even if water is running again, large coolers and donated bottled water goes out in every area of the schools for students until water is safe to drink, Wilson said.

“We’re getting toward the end of the big donation of bottled water,” Wilson said. “I hate to say ‘the next,’ but next time we will need more water.”

Wilson said that May 1, was the first time the school had to run with no water at all. The previous outage, which Wilson said lasted for six days, happened during the winter break, so it did not affect the school.

The school had running water again by Tuesday, but Wilson said that even that one day without water strained custodial staff. Regular mopping of floors couldn’t be done without water, and laundry service to clean the cleaning towels couldn’t happen. 

“Following the January notice, I realized we can’t be without water and run school,” Wilson said. “January wasn’t our first go-around as a district. I think everybody understands this is going to keep happening more and more until the money exists to change the pipes.”

West said she has confidence that Mapleton will be able to receive grants and work with the government to get the pipes fixed, but said the reality is that it will take a lot of time and money. She said Mapleton Water District patches leaks and performs repairs as they get funds, but the water access in the community will not be reliable until the pipes are fixed.

“I can tell you that I left my house two hours ago and I had water,” West said. “But can I tell you that I feel confident that I’ll have water later today, or in the morning? I have no confidence.”

As of May 6, the most recent boil water notice has been lifted.