LYNN — Residents of 103 Birch St. have been without water for three days due to a water and sewer break in their property pipe, which had been sending sewage down the street for almost two months. 

During that time, the Department of Public Health and the Lynn Water and Sewer Commission (LWSC) issued a 48-hour notice to fix the damaged pipe, which was extended by several weeks to provide homeowners ample time to find a contractor. 

LWSC Executive Director James Arsenault said that during that time, they provided the homeowners with a list of trusted companies that could fix the pipeline on payment plans, and a contractor was then scheduled to complete the work on Tuesday. 

Maria Gorbuleva, the daughter of homeowners Igor Gorbulev and Lyubov Vasillyeva, canceled the original date for the scheduled sewage line contractor, according to LWSC. 

When the planned construction was canceled, Arsenault shared that with the sewage causing a continual public health concern, in addition to neighbor complaints, they needed to shut the water off, which they did three days ago. 

To prepare for the water being shut off, the family filled their tub with water, which had been their main source of water aside from store-bought jugs, Gorbuleva claimed. 

Gorbuleva contacted Lynn’s Housing Authority & Neighborhood Development (LHAND) on June 22, stating that she needed assistance applying for grant funding for the property line work, explaining that Vasillyeva had an emergency medical-necessity utility protection request due to her heart condition. With the help of LHAND, the red tape was bypassed to get the work going without payment up front, Gorbuleva said. 

Gorbuleva claimed that because of a three-day-long lack of water, her mother Vasillyeva’s blood pressure had spiked, worsening her heart condition. 

“I’m doing logs on my mom and it’s been spiking and everything, so we’ll go visit our cardiologist because there’s been a little, not a little, a lot out of normal,” Gorbuleva said. 

According to Gorbuleva, the city had not been helping enough to get the issue resolved, which resulted in her filing a restraining order against LWSC inspectional services. Arsenault shared that he is unsure whether the restraining order was officially filed or not, but there is no prior documentation that a protective order has been filed against the commission before this incident. 

Starting the process at 8 a.m., Operator Freyser Lopez shared that the cost of the construction can vary depending on the size of the hole in the street, and by 11:30 a.m., the hole was six feet deep. 

“At the moment, it’s pretty bad,” Lopez said. “It is pretty deep, and there’s so many utilities around the way; it’s a lot of hand work.” 

Regarding the cause of the pipe break, Lopez shared that they can identify multiple different causes when things like this happen, whether it’s a rock, corrosion, or blockages causing a rupture. 

“It’s pretty cool what you find down there… we dug down to it, and we’re trying to follow the pipe to see any more breaks… we’re just trying to locate it.” 

After the property pipe was fixed and inspected by McGrath Enterprises, Lynn Water and Sewer turned the water back on, despite the legal protection order against the nonprofit. 

Gorbuleva confirmed the water was up and running by 2:30 p.m. Friday with the help of LHAND and LWSC’s efforts. 

“The city officially came out… it’s been on for about 20 minutes,” Gorbuleva said. “It took them about, maybe 25 minutes to get it back on. There was an issue; there was some debris. Once they put the heat in, they have to air compress it, but they did get it back on, and we have clear, running cold water. I have yet to check the hot water, but there’s a process to get everything on safely.” 

Considering Council President Coco Alinsug is away for family matters, Councilor Jordan T. Avery provided a statement on the resolution of the issue: 

“Although this issue was outside of Ward 7, I was contacted about it, and after looking into the matter, I spoke with the Lynn Water & Sewer Department and the private contractor, McGrath Enterprises. I’m pleased to report that the issue has been resolved and water service has been restored. I want to thank the dedicated men and women of the Lynn Water & Sewer Commission, McGrath Enterprises, and all of our city departments for their hard work, commitment to protecting our water & sewer systems while serving our residents.”

Arsenault shared his contentment over the issue being handled to clear the public health and safety concern, and helping the property owners get their water back: 

“I’m glad it got mitigated and that we were able to address the concerns and try our best as we could to work with the person and originally we did have to, you know, shut the water off a couple of days but luckily everything’s going good now, and it’s my understanding that the pipe is repaired and everything is flowing and working,” Arsenault said.